U.S.-backed forces tighten grip around Islamic State in Syria's Manbij

U.S.-backed forces fighting Islamic State near the Syrian-Turkish border said on Thursday they had reached the militants' last main route in and out of their stronghold in the area, the city of Manbij.
Monitors confirmed that the Syria Democratic Forces - an alliance which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia and Arab allies - had advanced to within firing distance of the road, one week into a campaign to push the militants out of their foothold along the frontier.
Washington hopes the operation will choke off Islamic State's last major link to the outside world - the militants have used the border for years to receive supplies and manpower, and more recently to send back fighters for attacks in Europe.
"We have reached the road that links Manbij and Aleppo, from the west," Sharfan Darwish, spokesman for the Syria Democratic Forces-allied Manbij Military Council, told Reuters.
Darwish appeared to be referring to the highway between Manbij and Islamic State-held al-Bab, further west. That highway also leads onto Aleppo.
A statement from the Manbij Military Council said its forces had already cut Islamic State supply lines leading north, east and south from the city, and were now close enough to Manbij itself to be able to fire on Islamic State militants.