ISIS jihadists in the strategic northern Syria town of Manbij "aspire" to directing international terror plots, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Friday.
AFP reports that anti-ISIS fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs, this week launched an offensive to capture Manbij.
The town is on the north-south axis between Jarablus, on the border with Turkey and controlled by IS fighters, and Raqa, ISIS's self-proclaimed capital in Syria.
Its capture has long been seen as key in stemming the flow of foreign fighters into and out of Syria.