US-backed forces cut off last IS escape route from Raqa

BEIRUT: US- backed forces cut off the last escape route for the Islamic State group from Raqa on Thursday, trapping the besieged jihadists inside their de facto Syrian capital.

But IS fighters hit back with a counterattack that included several suicide bombings against the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters trying to seize control of the city.

The SDF captured two villages on the southern bank of the Euphrates River that the jihadists had been passing through to withdraw from the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“The SDF has been able to completely encircle Raqa,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

It was the latest setback for IS, also known as ISIS, which declared its “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq three years ago but has since lost most of the territory it once controlled.

It came too as Iraqi forces announced the recapture of an iconic mosque in IS’s last major Iraqi bastion Mosul, prompting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi to declare “the end” of the “fake” jihadist state.

The SDF, backed by the US-led anti-IS coalition, broke into Raqa on June 6 after spending months chipping away at jihadist territory around the city.

Its fighters have since captured two eastern and two western districts of the city and are pushing towards its centre, where IS fighters are holding tens of thousands of civilians.

Around 2,500 jihadists are fighting in the city, according to British Major General Rupert Jones, a deputy commander for the US-led coalition. — AFP