Caliphate capital of Raqqa ‘liberated from IS’ – claim

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 landmines left behind and search for the extremist group’s sleeper cells, Brigadier General Talal Sillo added.

Brig Gen Sillo said yesterday 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 landmines, Brig Gen Sillo added, but fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces are now in control of the former “capital of terrorism”.

On Monday the head of a police force affiliated with the SDF was killed in a landmine explosion in the city, he said.

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”, transforming the once-vibrant metropolis into the epicentre of its brutal rule where opponents were beheaded and terror plots were hatched.

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.

After Brig Gen Sillo’s statement it was not clear if the IS militants were still inside the stadium.

Also earlier, Musafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, said 22 IS militants were killed in the advance on the hospital.

“The stadium is a huge structure with underground rooms and tunnels. There are also buildings around it” still under the control of IS, he said, and added that “there is nothing decisive today”.

On Monday the Kurdish-led SDF captured Paradise Square, Raqqa’s public square where Islamic State militants used to perform killings and beheadings, forcing residents to watch after summoning them through loudspeakers.

Bodies and severed heads would linger there for days, mounted on posts. Residents described how the bodies of those slain would be labelled, each with his or her perceived crime, for the public to see.

The square previously known for its famous ice-cream shop was quickly renamed from Paradise to Hell Square, Jahim in Arabic.

The Kurdish-run Hawar news agency said with the capture of the hospital, the last black IS flag raised in the city had been taken down.