Arab-Kurdish fighters wrest control of most of Syria's Manbij city

Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on July 27, 2016. In nearby Manbij, the Syrian Democratic Front (SDF), an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, have seized control of most of the city from Daesh militant, a spokesman of the front said on Sunday. (AFP / DELIL SOULEIMAN)

BEIRUT, Lebanon: US-backed forces waging an offensive against the Daesh-held city of Manbij in northern Syria now have control of almost 70 percent of the city after rapid advances in the last two days, a spokesman said on Sunday.
Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) has cornered the ultra hard-line Sunni militants in the old quarter and was fighting them in some parts of the city after seizing most of the western, eastern and southern parts of the city, Sharfan Darwish of the SDF-allied Manbij Military Council told Reuters in Beirut by telephone.
The SDF, which was formed last year and includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia and Arab fighters, launched the campaign nearly two months ago with the backing of US special forces to drive Daesh from its last stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier.