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[RustyNails]

Manbij is mined to hell. The grain silos, mosques, everywhere. It's going to take a while to clear the pockets. But it's good as gone for ISIS. All their offensives thus far have failed. There must be a few dozen left in the center.

 

[Abinash117]

Really wonder if the YPG will connect the Cantons.

Most maps of Syria show a pro-government enclave in eastern Rojava. What is this? Do Assad's soldiers in this region have some sort of non-aggression pact with the Kurds?

A shaky alliance at best. They fight time to time, but it is usually resolved quickly. Usually because one side starts something than it escalates and the deescalate.

Clinton wouldn't probably do to much different besides maybe try to accelerate the ending. That solely depends on how ISIS ends up after Obama's term, though. If Mosul is captured, Rappa is surrounded, and the Turkey border is captured by whomever besides ISIS; most likely she utilize the SDF as a political weapon against Assad( they kind of already are a rival ). The question really is what the SDF is going to do after ISIS is mostly defeated considering I doubt they go full on to Deir Zor anytime soon as other things and surrounding Raqqa is going to be a very long term thing.

 

[RustyNails]

Manbij is 90% captured. ISIS launched a fierce counter attack from the north, but it was stalled 10km from the city due to airstrikes an SDF resisting the counter attack.

Another map:

 

[CHEEZMO™]

Manbij about to fall and the Ouagadougou Centre and the area around it in Sirte captured. Bad week for ISIS.

 

[Weckum]

This photo series about the liberation of Manbij is amazing:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/g...s-celebrate-photos?CMP=twt_a-world_b-gdnworld

And one from twitter, girls and women burning the Daesh veil:

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Tag for keeping up to date.

Secret History of ISIS is an amazing documentary...hoping they are quashed soon and fast.

 

[thefro]

Kurdish forces have launched a campaign to advance to Gwer, southeast of Mosul

Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on Islamic State (IS) forces early on Sunday as part of a campaign to capture Mosul, the militants' de facto capital in Iraq, Kurdish officials said.

The advance began after heavy shelling and air strikes by a United States-led coalition against IS forces, a Reuters correspondent reported from Wardak, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Mosul. The militants fought back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least two car bombs.

A Peshmerga commander said a dozen villages had been taken from the ultra-hardline Sunni militants as Kurdish forces headed toward Gwer, the target of the operation, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Mosul.

Repairing a bridge that the militants destroyed in Gwer would allow the Peshmerga to open a new front around Mosul. The bridge crosses the Grand Zab river that flows into the Tigris.

Mosul is the largest urban center under the militants' control, and had a pre-war population of nearly 2 million.

Its fall would mark the effective defeat of Islamic State in Iraq, according to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has said he aims to retake the city this year.

The Iraqi army is trying to close in from the south. In July it captured the Qayyara airfield, 60 km (35 miles) south of Mosul, which is to serve as the main staging post for the anticipated offensive.

The Peshmerga operation on Sunday was "one of many shaping operations that will also increase pressure on ISIL in and around Mosul," said an official from the Kurdistan Regional Security Council, using another acronym to refer to IS.

"Noose tightening around #ISIL terrorists: #Peshmerga advancing east of #Mosul, #ISF shoring up south near #Qayyara,"tweeted Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the militant group.

Preparations for the offensive on Mosul are "approaching the final phase," McGurk told reporters during a visit to Baghdad on Thursday. He said the planning included considerations for humanitarian aid to uprooted civilians.

Reading some other reports today that the Peshmerga are already at the Gwer bridge, but not sure how reliable those sites are.

 

[RustyNails]

Sirte almost recaptured. 3/4 downtown neighborhoods claimed by loyalists. ISIS is effectively out of Libya save for stragglers.

 

[RustyNails]

Manbij Offensive in gif form

 

[Ashes]

What a day it will be when ISIS are resigned to history.

 

[Gorger]

I can do nothing but smile with glee at ISIS losing on all fronts. These brave souls risking their lives fighting this scourge are truly heroes.

 

[Plasmid]

Is there a list of twitter accounts to follow to keep up with photographs from the region? Not looking for anything horrible but mainly stuff that keeps up with the region. kinda like SDF Press 1

 

[thefro]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37171995

Turkey and Free Syrian Army launch attack on Jarablus on the Turkish border

A dozen Turkish tanks have rolled across the Syrian border after heavy Turkish shelling of an area held by so-called Islamic State (IS).
Military sources told Turkish media 70 targets in the Jarablus area had been destroyed by artillery and rocket strikes, and 12 by air strikes.
Turkish special forces entered Syria earlier as part of the offensive.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation was aimed against both IS and Kurdish fighters.
Turkey shelled Syrian Kurdish forces in the region this week, determined not to let them fill the vacuum if IS leaves, the BBC's Mark Lowen reports from Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.
The concern in Ankara is that the Kurds could create an autonomous area close to the border which might foster Kurdish separatism within Turkey itself, our correspondent says.

The tanks were followed by pick-up trucks believed to be carrying Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from the Free Syrian Army.
"At 04:00 [01:00 GMT] our forces began an operation against the Daesh [IS] and PYD [Kurdish Democratic Union Party] terror groups," President Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.
The offensive is aimed at "putting an end" to problems on the border, he said.
A Turkish tank heads towards the Syrian border, 24 AugustImage copyrightAFP
Image caption
At least a dozen tanks were involved
The Turkish town of Karkamis - just across the border from Jarablus - was evacuated as a precaution following earlier IS mortar attacks.
Turkey has vowed to "completely cleanse" IS from its border region, blaming the group for a bomb attack on a wedding that killed at least 54 people in Gaziantep on Saturday.

An unnamed senior US official in Washington told BBC News before the start of the Turkish operation that it was "partly to create a buffer against the possibility of the Kurds moving forward".
"We are working with them on that potential operation: our advisers are communicating with them on the Jarablus plan.
"We'll give close air support if there's an operation."

Hopefully the US can keep Turkey/FSA from fighting the SDF in the region, at least while Daesh is still active. Obviously ideally they'd work together against Assad too after that and come to an agreement on running Syria, but that would be the most optimistic scenario.

Seems like Turkey was spooked by the Kurds' success into doing what they should have been doing three years ago.

 

[TheRealTalker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37171995

Turkey and Free Syrian Army launch attack on Jarablus on the Turkish border







Hopefully the US can keep Turkey/FSA from fighting the SDF in the region, at least while Daesh is still active. Obviously ideally they'd work together against Assad too after that and come to an agreement on running Syria, but that would be the most optimistic scenario.

Seems like Turkey was spooked by the Kurds' success into doing what they should have been doing three years ago.

you should do a OP/New Thread

 

[CHEEZMO™]

Abu Muhammad al-Adnani might be dead.

 

[thefro]

Turkey/Turkish-backed FSA now completely controls the border between the two Kurdish areas.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37272895

Turkey says allied forces have driven so-called Islamic State (IS) from the last stretch of the border with Syria which the militants controlled.

The loss to IS would cut off key supply lines to the group in Syria and Iraq.

It comes after Turkey and pro-Turkish rebels launched an offensive last month to clear the border of militants.

Separately, Syrian state forces recaptured parts of Aleppo recently lost to rebels, reimposing the siege of the rebel-held east of the city.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Ankara's military successes in a televised speech on Sunday.

He said: "Thank God, today, from Azaz to Jarablus, our 91km of borderline with Syria has been entirely secured.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "rebels and Islamist factions backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes" had taken several villages on the border between Turkey and Syria "after IS withdrew from them, ending IS's presence on the border".

 

[CHEEZMO™]

They also seem to want to make a point that they are trying to establish a presence in Bangladesh. They claim a couple of small attacks earlier in the issue, then has a eulogy for a Bangladeshi foreign fighter, and then caps off the issue with an interview with the Emir of this supposed new Bengali franchise.

He talks about how they need to protect the persecuted Muslims in Burma, but before that happens they need to establish a stronghold in Bangladesh to consolidate and strike forth from. Says that one of the obstacles to this is the presence of Hindus, Sufis and Christians etc, and that "Sharī’ah in Bengal won’t be achieved until the local Hindus are targeted in mass numbers and until a state of polarization is created in the region, dividing between the believers and the disbelievers", which is quite ominous.
Also talk of long-term hopes to co-ordinate with ISIS in Af-Pak to carry out attacks in India.

Flashback time!

IS have just put out what I believe is the first proper media release from this new branch. Not really much happens in it, a lot of the footage is stock/from other IS videos, as well as clips of some guys on TV who I presume are people IS dont like saying shit they dont agree with.

Latter half of the video is taken up by video statements by 5 guys who I think are the Dhaka cafe attackers (the section is opened with photos of the attack). They don't seem very well equipped, as they all hold these shitty .22 vaguely AK-looking things (possibly the same one being shared for the video).

 

[RustyNails]

Aleppo surrounded by 10,000 regime troops for final assault

An army of 10,000 troops is amassing outside of the besieged city of Aleppo as the government prepares for an unprecedented assault on rebel-held areas of the city after a week of airstrikes and artillery fire has left the city burning and hundreds dead.

According to senior government sources speaking to CNN, the US is now considering how to react to the latest move by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against opposition forces in eastern Aleppo.

The troops, which have been gathering for the last week and are believed to include as many as 3,000 soldiers from Iran, are reportedly preparing for a final ground assault as al-Assad looks to crush rebel positions in eastern Aleppo and retake the strategically important city.

 

[RustyNails]

Mosul front (dotted red line)

The offensive is going to start any day.
Mosul front (dotted red line)

The offensive is going to start any day. People inside Mosul say ISIS fighters are jittered, and getting more and more brutal. For example, they're cutting tongues of anyone who says "Liberation" in the markets. "M" resistance is keeping up with graffiti inside Mosul, confirming that when the assault begins they will start fighting from inside.


Dabiq recaptured by rebels

On Sunday morning the rebel alliance backed by Turkey announced that it had taken Dabiq after Isis withdrew from the town.

“The Daesh myth of their great battle in Dabiq is finished,” Ahmed Osman, the head of the Sultan Murad group, which took part in the operation, told Reuters.

The Levant Front, another group in the Turkish-backed offensive, published images from inside Dabiq shortly after the announcement, showing deserted streets and terrain.

The operation to reclaim Dabiq was part of Euphrates Shield, a campaign announced by Turkey in August in which Syrian rebel fighters have consolidated control over a stretch of territory from the Euphrates river to the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, aided by Turkish fighter jets, tanks and special forces troops.

The town was the scene of the executions of American and British aid workers and journalists kidnapped by Isis, the filming of which came to symbolise the group’s brutality.

The Dabiq defeat is the latest in a string of losses for the terror group, which once declared its self-proclaimed caliphate was “remaining and expanding”.

The caliphate has instead receded: in Syria this year it has lost the historic city of Palmyra and the town of Manbij, north of Aleppo, as well as much of its holdings in northern Syria. In Iraq, it lost its stronghold of Falluja in the summer along with much of Anbar province. An operation to retake Mosul, the most populous city under its control, is expected to begin in the coming days.

Islamic State’s top lieutenants have been killed in targeted assassinations and airstrikes, including the recent high-profile killing of its spokesman, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, in an airstrike on al-Bab, a town north of Aleppo that is expected to be an upcoming target for the Turkish-backed coalition.

 

[AmyS]

 

[RustyNails]

Mosul Offensive launched

1:45am

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced the start of the Mosul offensive in a televised address.

Stay tuned to Rudaw for live updates.

This is the final big city in Iraq that's controlled by ISIS. If it falls, the ISIS' back is broken and it's pushed inwards back into Syria.

 

[Tagyhag]

Good to hear, hope the offensive goes well.

 

[AmyS]

Erie....

 

[Phantast2k]

Update on the Turkish/FSA operation Euphrates Shield

• Turkey has lost 14 soldiers to a SVBIED yesterday: Battle for Syria's al-Bab intensifies, 14 Turkish soldiers killed: army | Reuters
  @RudawEnglish
  #BREAKING: #ISIS publishes picture of Palestinian suicide-bomber from #Gaza, killed 14 Turkish soldiers in Al-Bab attack.
  

  

• In course of the week they destroyed a couple of Turkish Leopard MBTs by ATGMs. Left them looking like this:
  
  
  
  Even though those are older models, still not a great look for the Leopards...
  
• They also captured Turkish Leopard and an IFV: ISIS claimed it captured Turkish Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks in Syria | Defence blog
  
  
  
  
• And today the scum uploaded a video of 2 Turkish soldiers being burned alive: Monitoring group says Islamic State video shows two Turkish soldiers burned alive | Reuters
  
  
  
  
• Overall (official) Turkish tally so far: Turkish army, FSA begin clearing Daesh from Syria’s al-Bab, 1,005 Daesh terrorists killed since Aug. 24 - Daily Sabah

 

[AuthenticM]

these fuckers need to be wiped off the face of the earth. No trial, no pity.

 

[| Praxis |]

Vile fucking cunts.

these fuckers need to be wiped off the face of the earth. No trial, no pity.

I agree. No prison, no rehabilitation just death for these savages.

 

[Syder]

And today the scum uploaded a video of 2 Turkish soldiers being burned alive: Monitoring group says Islamic State video shows two Turkish soldiers burned alive | Reuters

Poor fucking guys. What can you say about this except it being acts of pure evil?

 

[Hierophant]

are there any good writeups on what everyday life is in ISIS controlled territory?

 

[Syder]

What happened to this thread?

 

[archnemesis]

What happened to this thread?

There are other threads discussing the conflicts in Syria and Mosul. Those covers most of ISIS's territory.

 

[CHEEZMO™]

SDF operation to take Raqqa city itself began today. SDF forces have entered the city's outskirts.