MACON, Ga. — Legendary Southern rocker Gregg Allman was laid to rest Saturday near his older brother, Duane, in the same cemetery where they used to write songs among the tombstones, not far from U.S. Highway 41.

Thousands of fans lined the streets to honor the “Ramblin Man,” who was carried into Rose Hill Cemetery as a bagpiper played a somber tune. Family and friends, including musicians who played in the Allman Brothers Band over the years, gathered on a hillside overlooking his grave, which is shaded by oak trees.

Many shared memories of concerts, and some blared the band’s songs from their cars and trucks. One carried a sign saying “You made our soul shine. We’ll miss you brother Gregg.”

“I wouldn’t have missed this if I lived in China,” said Kelli Jo Hickman, who drove from Murphy, N.C.

The funeral service was private, with room for only about 100 people inside the small chapel. Mourners, including Allman’s ex-wife Cher, filed past white columns into the peach-colored building as five black stretch limousines waited outside for the short trip to the cemetery.

Allman, who blazed a trail for many southern rock groups, died May 27 at the age of 69 at his home near Savannah, Ga., said Michael Lehman, the rock star’s manager. He blamed liver cancer.

With Gregg at the organ and Duane playing guitar, the band began its rise to fame in the central Georgia city 90 miles south of Atlanta about five decades ago, and used to write songs while hanging out in the cemetery, Alan Paul wrote in “One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band.”

Duane died in a motorcycle crash in 1971, just as the band was reaching stardom.

U.S.-backed forces said to be ready to battle for ISIS capital

BEIRUT — The battle for control of the Islamic State group’s de facto capital Raqqa, in northern Syria, will begin “within days,” a spokeswoman for a U.S.-backed Syrian force at the city’s edges said Saturday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are encamped around the city’s northern and eastern divisions and Saturday made new progress against Islamic State militants to approach the city from the south bank of the Euphrates River.

Raqqa lies on the northern side of the river.

Spokeswoman Cihan Sheikh Ehmed said the SDF, which has the backing of the U.S. military, would launch the battle for Raqqa “very soon.”

Raqqa is the largest city to have fallen under the complete control of the Islamic State, called ISIS, in Syria, after militants seized it from rebels in January 2014.

SpaceX launches first recycled supply ship to space station

SpaceX launched supplies to the International Space Station in a previously used Dragon spacecraft for the first time Saturday afternoon and then landed the rocket’s first-stage booster back on Earth.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Dragon capsule for this mission was previously used in 2014 to carry supplies to the space station.

For this launch, it was filled with almost 6,000 pounds of crew supplies, hardware and science research, including equipment to study neutron stars.

Reusing a Dragon capsule is “one more piece of the puzzle” in creating a fully reusable, cheaper launch system, said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at the Teal Group.

American Airlines jet with 44 aboard veers off Texas runway

SAN ANTONIO — An American Airlines plane with 38 passengers and six crew members veered off of a runway at the San Antonio airport during takeoff Saturday and got stuck in the mud, authorities said.

No injuries were reported on American Airlines Flight 2214, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford.

Flights at San Antonio International Airport were suspended after the plane became stuck at 9:45 a.m. but resumed four hours later.

The Boeing 737 bound for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport aborted takeoff and veered off the runway at a low speed, the airline said.

FAA investigators are on the scene and the National Transportation Safety Board has been notified.

Attacker kills 6, injures 22 in Mexico, officials say

MEXICO CITY — Authorities say a gunman attacked a group of people at a bar in northern Mexico, killing six and wounding 22 others.

A statement from the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office said the attack was carried out early Saturday in Ciudad Cuauhtemoc after the assailant arrived in a car.

The border state of Chihuahua has seen an increase in violence this year. According to official figures, 484 people have been slain in Chihuahua state during the first four months of this year compared with 306 during the same period in 2016.

Elsewhere, a journalist advocacy group condemned an attack on a Mexican journalist that included the cutting off of part of his ear.

The attack occurred last week in the Caribbean beach town of Playa del Carmen.

UNICEF fears cholera taking hold in Yemen amid civil war

AMMAN, Jordan — A suspected cholera outbreak is spreading quickly in war-ravaged Yemen, with an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new cases every day, the U.N. children’s agency said Saturday.

Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director of UNICEF, said 70,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in the past month in 19 of Yemen’s 22 governorates.

He voiced his concern that cholera cases could double every two weeks — to 130,000 and then about 300,000 cases — unless more aid is delivered.

He said the outbreak might “spread beyond Yemen” and should perturb all states neighboring Yemen where civil war is now in its third year.

The fighting has killed over 10,000 people, displaced 3 million others and devastated the country’s health sector and economy.

Hiker’s body found: UNICEF said the remains of New York-based worker Charlotte Nikoi, a Ghanaian citizen who was reported missing March 21 during a hike in South Africa, have been found. The associate director for human resources at UNICEF arrived in Cape Town on March 17 to celebrate her wedding anniversary.

Reef at risk: A U.N. agency said it had “serious concern” about coral bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and urged the government to work faster to improve regional water quality. UNESCO said that “climate change remains the most significant overall threat to the future” of the 1,400-mile coral expanse.