ISIS withdraws from northwest Syrian front lines
US-backed force poised to enter city • UN seeking airlift approval, says gov’t blocking food aid
BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters withdrew from front lines with Syrian rebel forces north of Aleppo on Wednesday as they mounted a counter-attack against the jihadist group near the Turkish border.
The sudden withdrawal from villages around the rebel-held town of Marea points to the pressure Islamic State is feeling from offensives being waged by other enemies further east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Islamic State had managed to besiege the rebel-held town of Marea in a significant advance late last month, stranding thousands of civilians there and prompting a US-led coalition to air drop weapons to opposition fighters, rebel sources said.
Rebel fighters in Marea broke the siege on Wednesday when they captured the village of Kafr Kalbin on the road linking Marea with Azaz, 20 km. to the northwest at the border with Turkey. The advance was preceded by a rebel statement saying they were uniting their ranks.
“It seems [ISIS] can’t keep several fronts open at the same time. It is a strategic area, they were on the verge of entering Azaz,” observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. The opposition source said Islamic State had withdrawn from the area quickly, and Free Syrian Army factions had filled the void.
FSA rebels fighting Islamic State north of Aleppo have received military assistance from states opposed to President Bashar Assad.
Their battle with Islamic State is separate to one being waged further east by a US-backed group, the Syria Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia. The Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, has also advanced against Islamic State since last week.
The FSA rebels are fighting separate conflicts with both the SDF and Assad, their main enemy.
Meanwhile, a US-backed alliance of fighters in Syria is ready to enter the Islamic Stateheld city of Manbij in Aleppo province, but is being cautious due to the presence of civilians there, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
The Syria Democratic Forces alliance, backed by US-led air strikes, has advanced to the outskirts of Manbij one week into a campaign aimed ultimately at dislodging Islamic State from its last foothold on the Turkish border.
“Any moment that we want to enter it, we can, but because of the presence of civilians... we are being cautious about entering the city,” Sharfan Darwish of the Manbij Military Council said.
“I can say that the matter of liberating Manbij is settled,” he said. “When the time comes we will enter it of course.”
The offensive includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, which controls wide areas of northeastern Syria, and its Arab allies. Dislodging ISIS from the last stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier where it has a foothold has been a top priority of the US-led coalition fighting the group in Iraq and Syria.
“There is news about many [ISIS] members escaping and evacuating some areas of Manbij and booby-trapping them,” Darwish said. “Our forces are now on the outskirts of the city. The campaign continues.”
In Geneva, the United Nations is still waiting for Syrian government agreement for an aid convoy to enter the besieged town of Daraya and has requested approval to airlift food into four locations if land routes are unavailable, UN officials said on Tuesday.
Rebel-held Daraya got its first UN aid convoy since 2012 on June 1, but the shipment did not include food. The United Nations has said malnourished children in the Damascus suburb will die without outside help, a claim President Bashar Assad’s government has denied.
“The blockage of aid is a political issue,” UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular UN briefing in Geneva. “Daraya is 12 km. from Damascus, so it can be done but we need the political go-ahead from the government.”
Daraya is one of four besieged areas for which the UN presented the Syrian Foreign Ministry on Sunday a backup plan to airlift food if land access is not approved, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. It is awaiting approval.
“The written request included a plan for airlifts – not airdrops – as a last resort, to Daraya, Douma and Mouadamiya in rural Damascus Governorate, and Al-Waer in Homs Governorate,” Dujarric said.
So far Damascus has only authorized the delivery of medical assistance, school supplies and children’s milk to Douma, Daraya and Mouadamiya during June, not food.
Al-Waer was not among the areas approved for June. The Syrian government said in a statement that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had delivered seven trucks of medical supplies, food and children’s milk to the area on June 1.
The UN convoy got through to Daraya on the day the Syrian government faced a deadline to admit aid by road or risk having air drops imposed by the countries of the International Syria Support Group, which includes Syria’s ally Russia.
The convoy brought baby milk and medical supplies to support an estimated 4,000 civilians in the town besieged by government forces. UN officials had hoped food would arrive in a second convoy on Friday, but that was delayed with no government approval.
Syria’s opposition said the government approved the first convoy in a cynical ploy to alleviate international pressure.
Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Assad, said last week that “nobody is starving in Daraya,” which was “producing peas and beans and food and wild berries that is enough for the entire Syria.”