[ARA News] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have liberated 18% of Raqqa city since the launch of a major operation to liberate Raqqa from Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants, officials told ARA News on Wednesday.On June 6, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced the official start of the battle for Raqqa city.
In an exclusive interview with ARA News, Col. Joe Scrocca, the US-led coalition’s Director of Public Affairs, confirmed that until now 18 per cent of the city of Raqqa has been liberated by the SDF troops.
“The SDF is making significant progress on several axes against heavy ISIS resistance in Raqqa and has liberated approximately 18% of the city thus far,” said Col. Joe Scrocca.
“The SDF liberation of Raqqa will be a significant achievement in the Coalition’s mission to defeat Da’esh by, with, and through our partner forces. We are not going to put a timeline on these efforts,” the coalition’s official told ARA News on Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition to fight ISIS, said the fight is just getting started.
“I think we’re in the first 25 or 30 percent of the campaign for Raqqa,” Townsend told CBS News. “We’re just getting started good in Raqqa.”
On 3 July, the Syrian Democratic Forces breached the Old City of Raqqa by opening two small gaps in the Rafiqah Wall that surrounds the Old City.
“ISIS fighters were using the historic wall as a fighting position and planted mines and improvised explosive devices at several of the breaks in the wall,” the coalition said in a statement.
“SDF fighters would have been channeled through these locations and were extremely vulnerable as they were targeted with vehicle-borne IEDs and indirect fire as well as direct fire from heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and snipers as they tried to breach the Old City.”
“Unlike ISIS who deliberately destroyed the ruins of Palmyra and the Al-Nuri mosque and uses sites such as the Rafiqa Wall, hospitals, schools and mosques as weapons storage facilities and fighting positions, Coalition forces are making a great effort to protect civilians and preserve these sites for future generations,” said Coalition Spokesman, Col. Ryan Dillon.
“The most humane way to save the people of Raqqah is to swiftly and decisively defeat ISIS, who have terrorized the people of Raqqah for more than three years. Only this way, can the people of Raqqa be saved and city return to peace.”
Raqqa has been known as a de facto capital for the ISIS self-proclaimed Caliphate since the summer of 2014.
The Kurdish-Arab-Christian alliance of SDF has been isolating Raqqa since November 2016, when the US-backed alliance launched the so-called Euphrates Wrath Operation.
On 13 April, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the fourth phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation against Islamic State’s extremists to clear out the northern countryside of Raqqa.
During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, which began on November 6, 2016, the SDF liberated roughly 560 km² in Northern Raqqa.
On 10 December, 2016, the SDF launched the second phase of the Euphrates Wrath, during which it captured over 2500 km² in Western Raqqa.
On 4 February, 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the third phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation, and liberated dozens of villages in Eastern Raqqa from ISIS jihadists.
The campaign is ultimately aimed at liberating the city of Raqqa from ISIS extremists.
Syrian Kurds face fierce ISIS resistance in Raqqa
[AlManar] US-backed fighters inched forwards in Raqa’s Old City against fierce resistance Wednesday, after penetrating the heart of the ISIL Takfiri group’s Syrian bastion, a spokesman and a monitor said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces — an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters — entered the historical quarter after air strikes by the US-led coalition punched two holes in its ramparts late on Monday.
The Takfiri insurgents deployed four weaponized drones and several suicide bombers in vehicles against the advancing fighters, said a spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which makes up a bulk of the SDF.
“The SDF advanced and captured the strategic Saif al-Dawlah road leading towards the Old Mosque,” Nuri Al-Mahmoud told AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had pushed forwards about 200 meters (yards) by midday (0900 GMT) on Wednesday.
“They are now approximately 300 meters from the Old Mosque — within firing range of it,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
The US envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, hailed the SDF’s entry into the Old City as a “key milestone” in the campaign to defeat ISIL in its de facto Syrian capital.
Raqa earned notoriety as the scene of some of the group’s worst atrocities, including public beheadings, and is thought to have been a hub for planning attacks overseas.
Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped inside the city, with warnings that the terrorists are using them as human shields.