Forces backed by the US open new battlefront in Syria

By Phil Stewart and John Davison

WASHINGTON / BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of fighters backed by the United States opened a new battlefront in the war in Syria, launching an offensive to expel the Islamic State of the Syrian northern areas that the group uses as a logistical base and progresses rapidly, according to reports Wednesday.

The operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of discreet preparation, aims to prevent access of the radical group the Syrian territory along the border of Turkey, which militants use for a long time to send and receive fighters from Europe.

"It is significant that it is his last funnel" for Europe, said a US military told Reuters.

A small number of US special operations forces will support action on the ground, assisting and keeping some distance from the battle fronts, said the military source, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss military planning.

"They will get as close as necessary so that they (the Syrians fighters) finalize the operation. But if not directly involve in the fighting," he said.

The operation will also count on the support of air strikes by US-led coalition, and land positions shooting through the Turkish border.

Oust the Islamic State of their last bastion in the Turkish border has become a major priority of the campaign led by Washington against extremists. The group controls about 80 kilometers from the border following west to Jarablus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US air strike that supports the operation on the ground killed 15 civilians, including three children, near Manbij in the past 24 hours. The Centre's report was based on a network of activists in Syria.

The monitoring group based in London said the alliance Democratic Forces of Syria (SDF, its acronym in English), which is carrying out the attack to capture the stretch of land known as Manbij of pocket, dominated 16 villages and is 15 kilometers Manbij the city itself.

US officials said the operation will be carried out mostly by Syrian Arabs instead of Kurdish militiamen of the Popular Protection Units (YPG, its acronym in Kurdish), which will only represent about one-fifth or one-sixth of the total force.

This is seen as important for Turkey, which has been opposed to any further expansion of the Syrian Kurds on the border.

Ankara sees the fighters YPG-which already control a stretch of 400 kilometers of uninterrupted fronteira- as terrorists, and has expressed outrage at US support for militia in their battle against the Islamic State in Syria. But a US official said Turkey endorsed the offensive.