Battle for Daesh-held Raqqa begins

hukoumiya — 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 selfdeclared ‘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, said 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, 10km 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 air strikes in the distance.

An Arab group in the SDF, the Syrian Elite Forces, 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.—