After freeing 17 villages in East to Manbij, the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of Al-Madasah from ISIS on June 1. The operation’s goal is to cut the ISIS terrorist group off from an area the group uses to move weapons and fighters across the border.
The territory between the towns of Manbij and Marea is a crucial issue in the fight against ISIS. This area is known as the Manbij Pocket. If it’s captured, ISIS will be isolated from the Turkish border and the last funnel for foreign fighters will be cut off.
This will aslo clear the way for an assault on the city of Raqqa, which is the ISIS self-proclaimed capital.
Meanwhile, civilians are fleeing from Manbij as the SDF are advancing in the area.
VIDEO: Civilians fleeing from villages surrounding #Manbij as #SDF advances against #ISIS – @yunus4akca7 pic.twitter.com/5Ib1VfUBCP
— Conflict News (@Conflicts) June 2, 2016
The progress of the SDF’s offensive:
Click to see the full-size map
The US-led coalition airstrikes in support of the ground offensive:
This is an interesting study in the subtle propaganda that the U.S. and Western MSM uses to fool people. The South Front article itself is fine, I’m only calling attention to a couple of language/narrative tricks they have just started using to influence people.
The term ‘Manbij Pocket’ was rarely used until a couple of days ago. People who have followed this closely have commonly used the term ‘Turkish corridor’ or the previously-designated Turkish ‘Safe Zone’. Both of these shine a most unfavorable light on NATO-member Turkey. Specifically their open and continued support for any head-chopper that wanted to fight Assad and kill Syrians. That means Turkey turning a blind eye to the constant stream of recruits, weapons and supplies for ISIS, al Nusra and all other al Qaeda variants that continuously cross from Turkey to Syria.
Recently, I notice the odd term Manbij Pocket being used everywhere. Almost like someone flipped a switch and this became the preferred term in the MSM. Then I see it being picked up unconsciously by real news sites like South Front. Now, I’m not language cop – people can call it whatever they want. I would argue that ‘Manbij Pocket’ isn’t quite accurate for a number of reasons, but that’s my opinion and besides the point. Just be aware that it seems to be a Western-manufactured term designed to replace a common term that ZATO and Team Chaos didn’t like: Turkish Corridor (which I would argue describes it quite accurately). You’ll recall they did the same thing with the term ‘ISIS’, where the MSM purposefully tried to mutate it to ISIL, then just Islamic State (IS). The intention all along was to associate ALL head-choppers everywhere with mainstream Islam and remove the connection to ‘just’ Syria and Iraq. That propaganda effort failed miserably not because people rejected the technique, but because they just liked the term ISIS.
You are a good observer indeed. I also notice most of these little changes that appear over time in news reports, but mostly ignore them. I also despise that the western media calling ISIS “Daesh” because it’s less implicit in that acronym that the armed group is islamic. Because they want and people to like the islamic inmigrants which keep flowing in.
Once one pays attention to the language it is quite amazing to see how it spreads. Recall the goons of the day, in Libya it was “African mercenaries”, in Syria it was “shahiba” (a term not in use in MSM anymore,just in outfits such as the “White Helmets”…. Similarly if a leader of a country unfriendly to the US (aka “regime”) does not have a Hitlerite mustache one has to Photoshop one in (e.g. Putin)!