Raqqa ‘liberated’ as jihadists surrender

ISLAMIC STATE ‘CAPITAL’ FALLS

THE Syrian city of Raqqa has been liberated from Islamic State militants, a senior commander for a US-backed force has said.

Clearing operations were under way to remove land mines left behind and search for the extremist group’s sleeper cells, Brigadier General Talal Sillo added.

Brig Gen Sillo said there are no longer clashes in the city, which had served as the extremist group’s headquarters and self-proclaimed capital of their so-called “caliphate” for more than three years.

A formal declaration will be made from the city soon, after the clearing operations end.

Raqqa is still full of land mines, Brig Gen Sillo added, but fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces are now in control of the former “capital of terrorism”.

Losing Raqqa is a huge blow for IS, which has steadily lost territory in Iraq and Syria, including Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul a few months ago.

The group declared the city on the banks of the Euphrates River, which it seized from other Syrian rebels in early 2014, to be the capital of its self-styled “caliphate”.

It transformed the once vibrant metropolis into the epicentre of its brutal rule where opponents were beheaded.

Dozens of militants who refused to surrender had made their last stand in the city’s stadium, which had become notorious as a prison and dungeons for the group.