Islamic State capital Raqqa finally falls

Jihadist group’s de facto capital falls after 4month battle

RAQQA, SYRIA: US-backed militias said they have defeated Islamic State in its former capital Raqqa on Tuesday, raising their flags over the jihadist group’s last footholds in the city after a fourmonth battle.

The US military said it could confirm that about 90% of the Syrian city had been retaken.

Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Talal Silo said a formal declaration of victory will be made once the city has been cleared of mines and any possible Islamic State sleeper cells.

The fighting was over but the alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias was clearing the stadium of mines and any remaining militants, said Rojda Felat, commander of the Raqqa campaign for SDF.

The fall of Raqqa, where Islamic State staged euphoric parades after its string of lightning victories in 2014, is a potent symbol of the jihadist movement’s collapsing fortunes.

IS has lost most of its territory in Syria and Iraq.

RAQQA: US-backed militias have completely taken Syria’s Raqqa from Islamic State, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The fall of Raqqa city, where Islamic State staged euphoric parades after its string of lightning victories in 2014, is a potent symbol of the jihadist movement’s collapsing fortunes. From the city, the group planned attacks abroad.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a US-led international alliance, has been fighting IS at Raqqa since June.

A Reuters witness said fighting appeared to be almost at an end with only sporadic bursts of gunfire. Militia fighters celebrated in the streets, chanted slogans from their vehicles and raised a flag inside Raqqa stadium.

An SDF spokesman said the alliance would capture the last Islamic State areas in the city within hours. The stadium and a hospital, the SDF said they had captured earlier on Tuesday, were the jihadists’ last bases.

A local field commander said no Islamic State fighters remained even in the stadium and the hospital, two central city points where IS had been best entrenched and were the SDF said fighting on Monday night and early Tuesday was focused.

“We do still know there are still IEDs and booby traps in and amongst the areas that ISIS once held, so the SDF will continue to clear deliberately through areas,” said Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the coalition.