Hundreds flee besieged IS bastion in Syria

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Around 600 civilians fled Manbij on foot before US-backed forces "transported them to safer areas," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

The US-supported Kurdish-Arab alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), encircled Manbij on Friday, capturing dozens of villages near the Turkish border and severing a major supply route for "Islamic State" (IS).

The Britain-based Observatory, a monitoring group which gets its information from a network of sources on the ground, said that tens of thousands of Syrians were still trapped in the town, and that food supplies were running low. It said at least 223 IS militants and 28 SDF soldiers had been killed - as well as 41 civilians - since the US-backed offensive began at the end of May.

Heavy fighting was continuing to the north and west of the town on Sunday, as IS militants launched several counterattacks. Manbij has been under IS control since the group declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014. The SDF siege has blocked a key supply route used to transport IS fighters, money and weapons between the Turkish border and the militants' de facto capital, Raqqa.

http://www.dw.com/en/hundreds-flee-besieged-is-bastion-in-syria/a-19324774

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1. 'Road of death' to Aleppo pounded as air strikes cut off rebel areas

The opposition-held sector of Syria's divided city of Aleppo has been cut off from the outside world in recent days by an escalation of air and artillery strikes on the only road in, putting hundreds of thousands of people under effective siege.

A government campaign to fully capture Aleppo would most likely bury what little hope remains of reviving a diplomatic effort to end the five-year-old civil war, after talks and a ceasefire sponsored by the United States and Russia fell apart earlier this year.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war when it had more than 2 million people, has been divided for years into rebel and government sectors, and capturing all of it has been one of President Bashar al-Assad's biggest goals.

An estimated 350,000 people are still thought to live in the rebel sector, in harsh conditions made worse by the latest attempt to besiege them by cutting off the last remaining route out, the Castello Road, named for Aleppo's old castle.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-aleppo-idUSKCN0YY0PQ

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2. In Syria's Aleppo, divided locals share fear of total siege

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's largest city, Aleppo, used to be the country's economic locomotive but four years of grinding battles have rendered it almost uninhabitable. Pummeled by bombs and rocket fire, residents on both sides of this divided metropolis have experienced severe water and power shortages, soaring living costs, and collapsing public services.

In 2012, the city split between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Now the prospect of a total siege looms over both sides.

As government forces mount attacks to close the only road to the opposition-held areas in the east of the city, rebels outside Aleppo are slowly constricting the passage to the western, government-held side.

After a two month lull following an internationally-brokered cease-fire in February, the death toll is rising on both sides. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, recorded that 302 civilians in opposition neighborhoods have been killed in presumed Russian and government airstrikes since hostilities resumed on April 22. In that time, 236 civilians have been killed in indiscriminate shelling and rocket attacks by the rebels.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA_ALEPPO_FEAR_OF_SIEGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-06-12-15-53-48

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3. The Competing Campaigns Against ISIS in Northern Syria

ISIS currently faces an unprecedented threat to its core terrain in Northern Syria from an array of competing actors. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces surrounded the key transit hub of Manbij in Eastern Aleppo Province on June 9, threatening to sever the last remaining supply lines available to ISIS over the Syrian-Turkish Border. Meanwhile, ISIS’s stronghold of Ar-Raqqa City faces mounting pressure as both the U.S.-led coalition and pro-regime forces advance into its countryside. These combined pressures forced ISIS to withdraw from its frontlines with opposition forces in Northern Aleppo Province in order to prioritize the defense of its core terrain. Nonetheless, the degrading position of ISIS in Northern Syria is poised to ignite further conflict between local and regional actors that may jeopardize future successes. The terrain vacated by ISIS will likely host renewed competition between Syrian Kurds, opposition groups, and pro-regime forces as well as a geopolitical struggle involving Turkey, Syria, Russia, and the U.S. These conflicts could strain the international anti-ISIS coalition and stall further progress against ISIS in Syria unless the U.S. can successful navigate the conflicting interests of its allies and adversaries in the region.

http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/competing-campaigns-against-isis-northern-syria

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4. Rebel area of Aleppo cut off from world

The opposition-held sector of Syria’s divided city of Aleppo has been cut off from the outside world in recent days by an escalation of air and artillery strikes on the only road in, putting hundreds of thousands of people under effective siege.

A government campaign to fully capture Aleppo would most likely bury what little hope remains of reviving a diplomatic effort to end the five-year-old civil war, after talks and a ceasefire sponsored by the United States and Russia fell apart earlier this year.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war when it had more than two million people, has been divided for years into rebel and government sectors, and capturing all of it has been one of president Bashar al-Assad’s biggest goals.

An estimated 350,000 people are still thought to live in the rebel sector, in harsh conditions made worse by the latest attempt to besiege them by cutting off the last remaining route out, the Castello Road, named for Aleppo’s old castle.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/rebel-area-of-aleppo-cut-off-from-world-404570.html