Syrian Tribal Leaders: Liberation of Manbij Cuts ISIL Supply Route to Turkey

Syrian tribal leaders underlined the importance of winning back the town of Manbij in the Northeastern parts of Aleppo province, and said it will cut the ISIL supply route to Turkey.
“Manbij’s adjacency to Turkey is a big danger to the region since the ISIL receives aid from there and Turkey is considered as the ISIL’s main ally and sponsor and the most dangerous threat against the Syrian people,” said Morshid Ahmad from al-Shadadi region on Saturday.

Also, Ziyad Marwan al-Omri, a tribal leader in al-Hazeem region, said that Manbij is the gate to the Eastern parts of al-Jazira region and its liberation will establish security in Syria and extensively cuts ISIL’s main supply route to the Turkish borders.

The comments came after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued to storm the ISIL strongholds in the Western, Eastern and Southern sides of the terrorist-held town of Manbij, inflicting a heavy death toll on the militants.

The SDF fighters ended their mop up operations near al-Etehad university, and the villages of Madani Kabir, Madani Saghir and Sheikh Yahya and launched fresh offensives on the ISIL positions from the town’s Western flank.

“Heavy fighting is now underway between the SDF and ISIL along Manbij-Aleppo road,” battlefield sources said, adding, “At least 28 ISIL members have thus far been killed in the clashes in the Western part of Manbij.”

“The SDF fighters also carried out mop up operations in Hamdoun farms, silos areas and the village of Rasm al-Akhzar in the Southern side of Manbij and deployed forces at positions only one kilometer away from the town,” the sources added.

“At least 20 ISIL terrorists were killed in the SDF’s cleansing operation of the village of Tal Rafi’a in the Eastern side of Manbij and the SDF fighter reached to 4 kilometers distance from the town,” the sources went on to say.