Allies begin assault to retake Raqqa

Us-backed Syrian fighters yesterday launched an operation to retake the last Islamic State-held pocket of the northern city of Raqqa after some 275 militants and their family members surrendered.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the operation would continue “until all the city is cleansed from terrorists who refused to surrender”.

The SDF has been on the offensive in Raqqa since early June and now controls about 90 per cent of the city that was once the extremist group’s selfstyled capital. Most of the fighters who remain in the pocket are foreigners, according to the SDF and opposition activists.

The operation was named after Adnan Abu Amjad, an Arab commander with the SDF who was killed in August while fighting against IS in central Raqqa.

The loss of Raqqa would hand another major blow to IS, which has lost most of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq. Iraqi forces captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.