The international coalition against ISIS declared yesterday evening a massive ground offensive against the organization.
The coalition's Operations Coordinator, John Allen, said in a statement to Jordanian news agency Petra that "there will be a massive attack on the ground against ISIS soon, the attack will be carried out by Iraqi forces, with support from the coalition".
Allen added, "Twelve Iraqi Brigades are being trained and equipped in preparation for the ground campaign. We have a partner in Iraq, but we have no partners in Syria in the war against terrorism".
The commander of the Jordanian Air Force, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Jabour, confirmed that 7,000 ISIS fighters had been killed since the start of the coalition's air strikes. Jabour said that the coalition's raids focused on targeting ISIS leaders, especially Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "The coalition's operations have rendered around 20 percent of ISIS combat capabilities, and the Jordanian Royal Air Force have participated in 946 raids out of 5,500 raids carried out by coalition's forces against ISIS", Jabour added.
Meanwhile, the battalions of the FSA and the Kurdish forces have expanded their battle against ISIS in northern Syria, while the raids of the international coalition continue against the organization, which lost more than a third of Kobani's countryside in the north of Syria. Kurdish People's Protection Units, supported by the Raqqa Rebels Brigade and Shams ash-Shmaml Brigades, seized control of over 128 villages in the countryside of Kobani – two weeks after taking control of the city – which forms more than one-third of the villages in the countryside of the city.
Commander of the Raqqa Rebels Brigade said all factions have agreed that no military force (except for the Raqqa Rebels Brigade) will enter the city of Tal Abyad, the second-largest city in the region. The commander declared "Serrin and Tal Abyad cities and their surroundings a military zone".
As for the confrontation between Syrian regime forces and opposition fighters, regime forces have escalated their attacks on the western and eastern sides of Damascus in an attempt to establish a "safe-belt" around the capital.
While the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes broke out again yesterday in the north-eastern side of the city of Daraya, when two surface-to-surface missiles fell on the area after months of relative peace. The Sham United Front, which fights in the south of the capital, announced it will "start specific and focused bombing operations on the security centers in Damascus."
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
