U.S.-backed forces cut off all routes into IS-held Manbij: Syrian Observatory

Reuters ^ | June 10th, 2016 | by John Davison

[Mariner]

U.S.-backed forces seized control of the last route into Islamic State-held city of Manbij in northern Syria on Friday, completing their encirclement of the main target in a major advance against the militants, a monitoring group said.

The Syria Democratic Forces, supported by U.S.-led air strikes and American special forces, launched and advance last week to seize Islamic State's last territory on the Syria-Turkey border and cut the self-declared caliphate off from the world.

Other enemies of Islamic State, including the governments of Syria and Iraq, also launched major offensives on other fronts, in what amounts to the most sustained pressure on the militants since they proclaimed their caliphate in 2014.

Officials of the SDF, a U.S.-backed group formed last year to unite powerful Kurdish militia with Arab anti-Islamic State fighters, could not immediately be reached.

The SDF had by Thursday advanced to within firing distance of the last main highway into Manbij, Islamic State's main bastion in the border area west of the Euphrates. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the SDF had effectively taken control of the final road to the city early on Friday.

[Mariner]

The SDF is claiming a 8-1 kill ratio against ISIS.

[PAR35]

Cutting the Islamic version of the Ho Chi Minh trail is only part of what needs to be done. The US should also bomb the Turkish support infrastructure.

[Parmy]

Don’t know if the 8-1 kill ratio is legitamate, but IMO the ISIS fighters should be forced into a concentrated area and eliminated to the last fighter. No prisoners or survivors.

[crz]

I would like to see a bunch of them impaled in public.

[VTenigma]

Do we have a Declaration of War? Don’t bother, I know the answer.

[butlerweave]

Now Obama will send in Kerry to negotiate

[blam]

Put the ISIS fighters in cages and let the women burn them alive.
(Okay, maybe cut off and stick their penesis in their mouths first)

[eyedigress]

Send him in on his bicycle.