Anti-ISIL force nears ‘final week of campaign’ in battle to liberate Raqqa
US-backed fighters battling to expel ISIL from the Syrian city of Raqqa were nearing the final week of their assault, the campaign’s commander said yesterday.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance has captured about 90 per cent of ISIL’s one-time bastion and are closing in on the extremists in a pocket of territory near Raqqa city centre.
The SDF’s Kurdish and Arab fighters are advancing on ISILheld districts from two fronts in the city’s north and east, said Rojda Felat, who heads the campaign.
“If the two fronts meet, we can say we have entered the final week of our campaign to liberate Raqqa,” she said on the western outskirts of Raqqa yesterday.
“Within three to four days, we will be able to take the decision to begin the final campaign.”
Ms Felat said fighting was still fierce along the front line, with ISIL using snipers, suicide bombers and reinforced positions in tunnels to hold up the SDF advance.
The extremists still hold Raqqa’s national hospital, the nearby football stadium and surrounding residential neighbourhoods.
SDF fighters have surrounded the hospital and were yesterday preparing a fresh push around the stadium farther north, said Ali Sher, a field commander with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the SDF.
“We will advance at night on foot into new positions around the stadium’s north.
“It will be the first time we use this military tactic in Raqqa,” Mr Sher said.
As he spoke, Mr Sher fed bullets into a rifle magazine in one of several bombed-out apartment buildings taken up by his fighters to monitor parts of the stadium.
One room provided a clear view of the field’s edge and surrounding buildings.
An anti-ISIL sniper lay flat on furniture piled in a corner, peering out of a melon-sized hole in the wall, his finger on the trigger.
Another building overlooked the stadium’s abandoned entrance. SDF members said they suspected that ISIL fighters were holed up in the complex’s seating or underground rooms.
“The battle is in its final steps. When we finish with the area north of the stadium, we’ll be able to attack it and reach Al Naim,” Mr Sher said.
Al Naim roundabout in Raqqa became infamous for the beheadings ISIL staged there during its three-year rule in the city.
Elsewhere in Syria yesterday, ISIL fighters expelled Syrian regime forces from the eastern town of Mayadeen, days after they entered the key remaining extremist stronghold, a Britain-based monitor said.
Backed by Russian air power, regime forces had managed to fight their way into western Mayadeen on Friday.
“Counteroffensives by ISIL managed to force the regime fighters away from the western outskirts of Mayadeen,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the Syrian forces were now about six kilometres from the town, which was being targeted by “intensive air strikes carried out by regime and Russian aircraft”.
ISIL has controlled Mayadeen in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor since 2014.
The town is on the western bank of the Euphrates river, between provincial capital Deir Ezzor, where the extremists still hold several districts, and the border with Iraq.
We will advance at night into new positions around the stadium’s north. It will be the first time we use this tactic ALI SHER Field commander with the YPG