US-backed fighters begin final assault to recapture Raqqa
HUKOUMIYA/BEIRUT: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday it had launched a battle to capture Raqqa — Daesh’s de facto Syrian capital — piling pressure on the militants whose self-declared caliphate is in retreat across Syria and Iraq.
SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters the operation started on Monday and the fighting would be “fierce because Daesh will die to defend their so-called capital.”
The assault overlaps with the final stages of the US-backed attack to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh. It follows months of advances to the north, east and west of Raqqa by the SDF, which includes Arab and Kurdish militias.
Daesh captured Raqqa from rebel groups in 2014 and has used it as an operations base to plan attacks in the West. Silo said the assault had begun from the north, east and west of the city, which is bordered to the south by the River Euphrates.
The commander of the Raqqa campaign, Rojda Felat, told Reuters SDF fighters were attacking the Al-Mishlab district at the city’s southeastern outskirts, confirming an earlier report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The coalition has a big role in the success of the operations. In addition to warplanes, there are coalition forces working side by side with the SDF,” Silo said by phone from the Hukoumiya farms area, 10 km north of Raqqa, where the SDF later declared the start of the assault.
A Reuters witness at the location could hear the sound of heavy shelling and airstrikes in the distance.
An Arab group in the SDF, the Syrian Elite Forces, which was established in February, had entered Al-Mishlab with coalition air support, its spokesman Mohammed Al-Shaker said by phone.
“The Syrian Elite Forces one or two hours ago entered the first quarter of Raqqa, which is Al-Mishlab quarter, via the eastern front,” he said.
The US-led coalition said the fight for Raqqa would be “long and difficult” but would deliver a “decisive blow to the idea of ISIS (Daesh) as a physical caliphate.”
“It’s hard to convince new recruits that ISIS is a winning cause when they just lost their twin ‘capitals’ in both Iraq and Syria,” a coalition statement cited Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend, the coalition commanding general, as saying.
“We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester, England,” said Townsend. “ISIS threatens all of our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our own homelands as well. This cannot stand.”
“Once ISIS is defeated in both Mosul and (Raqqa), there will still be a lot of hard fighting ahead,” he said.
Security officials in the West have warned of increased threat of attacks such as last month’s Manchester suicide bomb- ing and Saturday’s attack in London as Daesh loses ground in Syria and Iraq. Both attacks were claimed by Daesh.
The Observatory said the SDF had captured some buildings in the Al-Mishlab area and that Daesh militants had withdrawn from parts of the district. The Observatory also said an attack was underway against a military barracks, Division 17, on the northern outskirts of Raqqa.
The US-led coalition has said 3,0004,000 Daesh militants are thought to be holed up in Raqqa city, where they have erected defenses against the anticipated assault. The city is about 90 km from the border with Turkey.
The SDF includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia.
Fighting around Raqqa since late last year has displaced tens of thousands of people, with many flooding camps in the area and others stranded in the desert.
The UN human rights office has raised concerns about increasing reports of civilian deaths as airstrikes escalate.