[ALMASDARNEWS] US allies have sustained heavy casualties in Raqqa city this week. According to Amaq Agency, upwards of 53 casualties were inflicted on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over the past 24 hours alone.With ISIS luring the largely Kurdish SDF into an attritional battle for Raqqa, jihadist militants managed to retake parts of the Al-Bitani and Al-Sinaa neighborhoods in eastern Raqqa along with the southern sector of the Division 17 Army Base on Wednesday. Two suicide bombings were reported amid the large-scale ISIS counter-attack.
Subsequently, ISIS dragged the corpses of Kurdish combattants through downtown Raqqa, likely to install fear in locals and deter them from cooperating with the US-led coalition.
ISIS doomed in Raqqa as Kurdish forces cutoff last supply line to the embattled city
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Thursday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) cemented their siege of ISIS-held Raqqa after taking control of the last village on the southern Euphrates River bank of the city.
In an advance that seems to have sealed the fate of ISIS insurgents bogged down within their own capital, the US-backed SDF imposed full control over Al-Kamb after wrestling control of the neighboring villages of Sheikh al-Jimal and Kasrat Al-Faraj earlier this week.
Effectively, Kurdish troops have fully ringed Raqqa city, leaving them no escape route to the Islamic State mainland elsewhere in Syria and Iraq.