US envoy: About 2,000 Islamic State fighters remain in Syria’s Raqqa
WASHINGTON: About 2,000 Islamic State fighters are estimated to remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa, fighting for their survival in the face of an offensive by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a senior US official said on Friday.
Brett McGurk, US special envoy for the coalition against Islamic State, said the SDF had cleared about 45 per cent of Raqqa since launching an attack in early June to seize Islamic State’s stronghold in northern Syria.
“Today in Raqqa, ISIS is fighting for every last block ... and fighting for their own survival” McGurk told reporters.
Some 2,000 ISIS fighters are left in the city and “most likely will die in Raqqa,” he said.
The assault on Raqqa coincided with the final stages of a campaign to drive Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where the Islamist militants were defeated last month.
McGurk said Islamic State has lost 70,000 sq km of the territory it once held in the two countries - 78 per cent of what they had seized in Iraq and 58 per cent of what they held in Syria.
Before every military operation, coalition forces surround the area targeted to make sure Islamic State’s foreign fighters cannot escape and make their way out of Iraq and Syria, he said.
With the close cooperation of Turkish forces, the entire Syrian- Turkish border was sealed and Islamic State can no longer send militants trained in Syria for attacks in Europe and elsewhere, McGurk said. — Reuters