US unleashes 150 airstrikes on Daesh near Syria’s Raqa
Militants tighten restrictions on people leaving the de facto capital
beirut — Warplanes from a USled coalition have conducted at least 150 air strikes on the Daesh group to bolster a major offensive on the milita’s Syrian stronghold of Raqa, a monitor said on Friday.
The US is backing twin assaults against Daesh — one for Raqa province, and one for the Iraqi city of Fallujah across the border.
A Kurdish-Arab alliance is being supported by coalition raids as well as US forces on the ground in its push for territory north of Raqa city — Daesh’s bolthole in Syria.
The coalition has been providing air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to the tune of 150 strikes on Daesh positions since the assault began Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“There has been a serious intensification of air strikes, but they were most intense on the first day of the operation,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman on Friday.
SDF forces have pushed forward from Ain Issa, which lies less than 60 kilometres north of Raqa city, into the surrounding farmland and small villages made up of low buildings.
The fighting and bombardment has left 31 Daesh fighters dead so far, Abdel Rahman said.
The SDF has not released a tally of casualties among their forces, and the Britain-based Observatory could not immediately provide a toll.
“There are almost no civilians in the villages where the fighting is happening, which is why there is no civilian death toll,” Abdel Rahman said. Near the front line, an AFP photographer on Wednesday saw US soldiers supporting SDF forces, who say they have advanced seven kilometres from Ain Issa.
“We liberated the villages of Fatisah, Namroudiya, and Wastah as well as several fields. The coming battle will hold a lot of big surprises,” SDF field commander Baraa Al Ghanem said.
Further south in Raqa city, the estimated 300,000 people still living there were becoming increasingly desperate to flee.
According to anti-Daesh activist group Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), residents were paying smugglers $400 each to try to escape the city.
“There is nearly no one walking in the streets,” said RBSS activist Hamoud Al Musa, who hails from Raqa. “People are afraid of a brutal onslaught from the warplanes, whether coalition, Russian, or even regime,” he said.
Daesh had set up a few new checkpoints in Raqa city and was “amassing its forces on the front lines” further north, he said.
Daesh members were also doubling down on mandatory religious training for residents,” Musa said.
The extremists have tightened restrictions on people leaving the city, amid accusations that they are using the civilian population as human shields.
Abdel Rahman said a handful of families had been able to escape the city and had made it west to Idlib province, controlled by a rebel alliance including Daesh rival, Al Nusra Front.
Across the border in Iraq, progovernment forces have advanced on bridges leading to Daesh-held Fallujah, said Staff LieutenantGeneral Abdulwahab Al Saadi, head of the Fallujah Liberation Operations Command. But Daesh fighters were using “car bomb and suicide (bombers) and sniper detachments” to resist the advance.
About 50,000 civilians are estimated to be trapped inside the city, and only 800 had been able to escape thus far, according to the UN’s refugee agency.
Spokesman Melissa Fleming said the UN had received reports that people including women and children had been killed trying to flee.
“Inside Fallujah, there have been reports of a dramatic increase in the number of executions of men and older bwoys in Fallujah refusing to fight on behalf of extremist forces,” Fleming said.
She described “harrowing tales” of families trekking for hours through the night on foot, sometimes hiding in old irrigation pipes, to reach safety.
Fallujah, which lies only 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been out of government control since January 2014 and is one of only two remaining major Iraqi cities still in Daesh hands, the other being Mosul.
Fleming said a total of 4,266 people had fled Mosul and travelled across the border to Syria’s Hasakeh province. —