US-backed Syrian rebels set to announce Raqqa ‘assault’ date
Syrian army plane downed east of Damascus
BEIRUT, June 5: US-backed Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State will announce the start date for the final assault on Raqqa city on Tuesday, aiming to oust the militants from their de facto capital in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday.
The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the US-led coalition against Islamic State. On Saturday the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, part of the SDF, told Reuters the fifth and final stage of the attack would start in the coming “few days”.
Meanwhile, two Syrian rebels and a war monitor said a Syrian military plane had come down about 50 kms east of Damascus on Monday in rebel-held territory near a frontline with government-held land.
“We have brought down a Syrian jet in Tel Dakwa area in rural Damasus and we are searching for the pilot,” Saad al Haj, spokesman for Western backed Jaish Osoud al Sharqiya rebel group, told Reuters. Osoud al Sharqiya is one of the main groups fighting in the southeast Syrian desert, known as the Badia.
Pictures of what appeared to be the human remains of the pilot have been shared on opposition social media sites alongside pictures of aircraft wreckage said to be that of the warplane.
Another rebel official, Said Seif from the Western-vetted Ahmed Abdo Martyrs group that operates in the area, said the plane came down in an area 15 kms east of Bir Qasab between Tal Dakwa and Dumair airport.
Seif said rebels hit the aircraft with heavy, anti-aircraft machine guns which had been delivered to them in recent weeks by the United States and its allies to fend off a new push into southeast Syria by the government and allied Iran-backed militias. The Syrian military could not be reached for comment.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said a plane was shot down by a rebel group in the area but it could not confirm if the pilot was dead or alive.
Reports
Reuters could not independently confirm reports of the downed plane.
As US-backed forces prepare a final assault on the Islamic State group’s Syrian bastion Raqqa, displaced civilians are dreaming of spending the end of Ramadan feast back home.
The Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia is expected to begin its assault on the northern Syrian city as early as next week, after months of fighting to seal off Raqqa.
In a camp for the displaced in the town of Ain Issa, 50 kms (30 miles) north of Raqqa, waves of people arrive every hour.
The conditions are dire, including for those observing sunrise-to-sunset fasts during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which will end in late June with the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
“I’ve been here for 20 days and I’m still sleeping on the ground,” said Salwa Ahmed, 33, her face covered with a black scarf that revealed only her eyes.
“The camp is so hot all day long, you feel dead by the end of the day,” she said.
“And only the bread is free. Those who don’t have any money will die from hunger,” she added.
Last month a camp administrator said more than 20,000 people had sought refuge in Ain Issa, and appealed for additional assistance.