Meanwhile Kurdish-Led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces advanced inside the Islamic State-held city of Manbij in northern Syrian province of Aleppo on Friday, seizing a wheat silo complex on its outskirts and a roundabout 2 km south of its center, a monitoring group said.
The advance took place more than three weeks after the SDF and the coalition launched an offensive to drive the "jihadist militants” from territory it controls along the Turkish-Syrian border. They had rapidly advanced to just outside the city and cut IS supply lines leading there, Reuters reports.
Also Syrian Air Force fighter jets continued to pound ISIL's positions in Western Raqqa, striking several ISIL sites along the Salamiyah-Raqqa Highway, military sources said on Thursday.
“The airstrikes by the Syrian Air Force proved highly effective as Syrian Army’s ground forces in Ithriyah were given the necessary reprieve from recent ISIL counter-offensives in the Western regions of Raqqa province,” said the military source at Hama Airport.
"A field source said Syrian Army troops were targeted with hand-made produced rockets loaded with nerve gas agents.Dozens of soldiers were injured in ISIS chemical attack which seems to be the main reason behind the Syrian army's withdrawal from some Western parts of Raqqa."
The Syrian Air Force jets launched surgical air raids on ISIL’s positions in Albu Allaj village as well as the terrorist group's positions along the Tabaqa-Anbaj and Anbaj-Albu Allaj roads, FNA reports.
A large number of ISIL terrorists, including several foreign combatants, were reportedly killed in the airstrikes.
The aerial attacks go as the Syrian Army continues punishing the ISIL terrorist group with earlier reports saying that the group shelled the Syrian government troops in Southwestern Raqqa with rockets containing nerve gas.
12