US-backed fighters seize Raqqa district
beirut — US-backed Syrian fighters said they had seized a second district of Raqqa on Sunday and launched a renewed assault on a base north of the city, as they pursued an offensive against the Daesh group.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who broke into Raqqa after announcing the start of a final assault on the city last week, said their fighters “liberated the neighbourhood of Al Romaniya on the western front of Raqqa, after two days of continued clashes”.
It was the first time the SDF was reported to have taken a western district of Daesh-held Raqqa, which its fighters are bearing down on from the east, west and north. The SDF previously seized control of the district of Al Meshleb in the east.
SDF fighters were battling on Sunday to dislodge Daesh from the base, with backing from the US-led coalition bombing Daesh, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Blasts could be heard throughout the night because of the exchange of fire between the two sides,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said Daesh had “heavily
The uS-backed fighters liberate the neighbourhood of al Romaniya on the western front of Raqqa, after two days of continued clashes Syrian Democratic Forces
fortified” the base in anticipation of a ferocious SDF assault on it.
Originally a Syrian army base, Division 17 was seized by Daesh in 2014 as it took control of swathes of the wider Raqqa province.
The SDF — an Arab-Kurdish alliance — spent seven months tightening the noose on Raqqa city before finally entering it this week.
After seizing Al Meshleb on Wednesday, SDF forces were using it as a launching pad for new operations, according to the Observatory.
Al Meshleb is one of the more built-up residential neighbourhoods in the city’s east, while most other districts nearby are made up of markets and small shops.
An estimated 300,000 civilians were believed to have been living under Daesh rule in Raqqa, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of Syria.