WAR ON IS IN SYRIA, IRAQ
40pc of Manbij retaken
Militants' attacks on Kirkuk oil field kill 5; IS leaders, families flee Mosul as offensive looms
Advancing Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by US-led air strikes now control 40 percent of the Islamic State stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, a monitor said yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Democratic Forces had pushed deeper into the town near the border with Turkey, with air cover from the US-led coalition against the jihadists.
Around 2,300 civilians have fled Manbij in the past 24 hours as the SDF fighters advanced, according to the Britain-based monitor.
It said clashes between the joint forces and IS fighters were continuing in several parts of the town.
Meanwhile, UN deputy Syria envoy Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy invited Damascus to new peace talks with the opposition at the end of August, drawing a positive response from the government.
More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
In Iraq, Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi has said that Islamic State group leaders and their families have sold their belongings and fled Mosul as Iraqi forces close in on the northern city.
Iraqi forces are conducting operations to set the stage for an assault on Mosul, the country's second city that has been held by IS since June 2014, but the final push to retake it is likely still months away.
Mosul is the last city held by IS in Iraq, but retaking it poses a major challenge, and the operation could unleash a humanitarian crisis unless plans are made for people who would likely flee the fighting.
The Red Cross has said it believes that up to a million Iraqis could be displaced in the coming months by fighting against IS, including the operation to recapture Mosul.
Meanwhile, IS militants assaulted a gas facility and a nearby oil field in north Iraq yesterday, killing five people in rare attacks inside Kurdish-controlled areas of Kirkuk province, officials said.
Gunmen travelling on motorbikes opened fire on the gas facility's guards, then killed four of its employees and planted multiple bombs before escaping, officials said. Militants also attacked the nearby Bai Hassan oil field, the largest in oil-rich Kirkuk province, killing an engineer and sparking a major fire, officials said.