BEIRUT: US-backed fighters have seized 90 per cent of Raqa from the IS group, a monitor said on Wednesday, as they announced they were in the “final stages” of capturing the IS Syrian stronghold.
Under siege in the northern city for three months, IS is struggling to defend its one-time bastion under a barrage of air strikes by the US-led coalition battling the militants in Syria and Iraq.
“Because of the heavy coalition air strikes, IS withdrew from at least five key neighbourhoods over the past 48 hours,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“This allowed the Syrian Democratic Forces to control 90 per cent of the city.”
The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces the coalition is backing in Syria with air strikes, equipment and advisers. IS pulled out of the north of the city and abandoned its grain silos and mills, Abdel Rahman said.
It was now confined to the city centre, in government administrative buildings, the stadium and tunnels.
The SDF said its forces had mounted a “surprise attack” on IS in the north of the city.
“We consider this the final stages of the Wrath of the Euphrates campaign, which is nearing its end,” a statement said.
IS seized Raqa in early 2014, transforming the city into the de facto Syrian capital of the “caliphate” it declared after taking control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
It quickly became synonymous with the group’s most gruesome atrocities, including public beheadings, and IS is thought to have used the city to plan attacks abroad.
The SDF spent months encircling the city before entering it in June and sealing off all access routes.
Abdel Rahman said the siege had worn down IS’s defensive capabilities.
“After hundreds of their fighters were killed in recent weeks, the remaining IS fighters will not be able to resist much longer in Raqa as their military equipment
and basic necessities are dwindling,” he said.
Without food or medical equipment, IS was unable to treat its own wounded and had retreated to the city centre, which it considered “the most secure,” he said.
But the battle for the 10 per cent of the city still held by IS is likely to be tough, as the militants have heavily mined the area, Abdel Rahman said.
IS has used mines, snipers, car bombs, and weaponised drones against the SDF offensive. — AFP
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