Last IS bastion breached in Raqqa
ISLAMIC State’s caliphate is falling apart fast as it loses its grip on its key stronghold of Mosul and its de facto capital of Raqqa.
US-backed forces in Syria breached the wall around Raqqa’s Old City, the US military said on Tuesday – a major advance in the weekslong battle to drive IS out of its self-declared capital.
The coalition made two small breaches of the Rafiqah Wall, allowing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces into the most heavily fortified part of the city without encountering booby traps and snipers.
Air cover helped three SDF units pass through the wall and IS defences.
Breaching the wall was the most important development to date in the battle for Raqqa, said the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman.
In neighbouring Iraq, government forces continued their steady advance through the last major IS stronghold in the country, Mosul.
Fighting with IS militants continued in Mosul’s Old City where Iraqi forces are 250m from the Tigris River, which divides the city. East of the Tigris was liberated in January and the west side appears close to liberation.
As a result, IS fighters are putting up increasingly fierce resistance and government forces expect a struggle to capture those last areas.
In the Old City, civilians fleeing are getting more desperate. The weakest are carried in blankets across mounds of debris and rubble – the results of bombing and shelling. Soldiers hurry them along, fearful of those coming from the Old City after a string of suicide bombings.
Lt Gen Abdel Ghani al-Asadi, from Iraq’s special forces, said IS militants trapped in the Old City were in a “fight to the death”. He said they were increasingly resorting to suicide bombings and he expected the fighting to get heavier as they were pushed closer to the river.