U.S.-Backed Forces Launch Major Offensive for Manbij Pocket: U.S. Officials

Rebel factions backed by the U.S. began a major operation on Tuesday against ISIS in northern Syria aimed at wresting control of a strategic swathe of land known as the Manbij pocket from the extremists.

The offensive, which has been planned for weeks, aims to push the so-called Islamic State out of the strip of Syrian territory along the Turkish border. The area has been a vital logistics base central to the group’s movement of foreign fighters to and from Europe, U.S. officials told Reuters.

A small group of U.S. special operations forces will be present throughout the offensive, but they are there to serve only in an advisory role, according to anonymous U.S. officials.

“They’ll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian fighters) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat,” one official said.

The offensive will comprise mostly Syrian Arab forces instead of the long-relied-upon Kurdish YPG militia. Kurdish forces will reportedly make up only about one-fifth or one-sixth of the overall force.

Unidentified Jets Target Main Ahrar al-Sham Training Camp in Idlib

Fighter jets targeted a major base of the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group in Idlib province on Tuesday, killing and wounding a large number of rebel fighters, according to a monitoring group.

Unidentified jets targeted a training camp in the Sheikh Bahar area of rural Idlib, where the Islamist group’s leading trainers are usually located, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Over the past 24 hours, Syrian warplanes have stepped up air raids across the rebel-held province, the majority of which is controlled by Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front.

Earlier on Tuesday, a wave of at least 10 airstrikes targeted the province’s capital, hitting the city’s central hospital and killing at least 23 people.

Thousands Stranded in North by ISIS Advance

Some 8,000 civilians are trapped north of Aleppo, where ISIS has made advances against rebel groups, and Kurdish and rebel leaders have attempted to prevent people from leaving the area, say U.N. officials.

“An unknown number of people are also unable to flee due to fighting and the closure of the main road leading north toward the town of Azaz in northwestern Syria,” said a joint statement from the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria and the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis.

Fighting north of Syria’s second city – where more than 160,000 people, forced out earlier this year, are already sheltering – has displaced thousands in recent weeks, Reuters reports.

ISIS has made advances against rebel groups in the area in recent days, pushing into the strategic rebel-held town of Marea.

Syrian Kurdish authorities have reportedly prevented civilians fleeing the ISIS advance from entering areas under their control, in response to rebel shelling of the Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsoud area of Aleppo.

Some 2,000 people have fled the towns of Marea and Sheikh Issa, which were surrounded by ISIS on May 27, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“However, an estimated 7,000 civilians still remain inside and [are] unable to leave due to restrictions imposed by Kurdish authorities.”

Rebel leaders in the strategic border town of Azaz issued a similar order on May 24, directing its fighters to prevent the entry of any more people fleeing ISIS-held areas.

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