The American-led coalition has made slow progress in its fight against Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). The rogue group has held on to far too much territory for far too long, and this has allowed it to claim some kind of spurious success. Therefore it is important to celebrate the coalition’s successes and the expulsion of Daesh from the Syrian regional city of Manbij is an important step forward to the eventual extermination of this group.
On Friday the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that they had fully liberated Manbij, after two years of occupation and a grim battle since June that displaced almost 100,000 civilians and left more than 400 dead.
The speed of the SDF’s advance into Manbij was dramatically slowed down by Daesh’s use of civilians as human shields, which forced the SDF to clear the city house by house. This has been a hallmark of Daesh’s former urban strongholds like Tikrit and Ramadi in Iraq, and it will make the eventual struggle to retake Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria all the more harder.
The recapture of Manbij is a major blow to Daesh’s self-proclaimed caliphate across Syria and Iraq. The city was of great symbolic importance as one of Daesh’s larger strongholds, but in addition since it was only 25 miles (40km) from the Turkish border, Manbij was also a vital hub for Daesh’s substantial smuggling business and a centre for the misguided foreign recruits from Europe who wanted to join Daesh.
The situation in Syria is complex as two separate but interlocked wars are raging. There is the civil war between the regime and the opposition, which is being fought in the west and south of the country, and is currently centred on the fierce fighting in the siege of Aleppo. The war against Daesh in the east of the country (and Iraq) is being led by the American-backed coalition, but in Syria the coalition has struggled to find effective Syrian allies.
The SDF stands out as one of the most effective opposition military forces but it is dominated by Syrian Kurds, which makes it suspicious to the Turks who might otherwise be ready to give it more active support.
It is also a matter of great regret that the Russians who came into the war to support President Bashar Al Assad’s regime have not been more active against Daesh. They should have been part of the victory in Manbij.
