AFP, Beirut :
US-backed forces cut off the last escape route for the ISIS group from Raqa on Thursday, trapping the besieged terrorists inside their de facto Syrian capital.
But ISIS fighters hit back with a counterattack that included several suicide bombings against the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters trying to seize control of the city.
The SDF captured two villages on the southern bank of the Euphrates River that the terrorists had been passing through to withdraw from the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The SDF has been able to completely encircle Raqa,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
It was the latest setback for ISIS, which declared its “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq three years ago but has since lost most of the territory it once controlled.
It came too as Iraqi forces announced the recapture of an iconic mosque in ISIS’s last major Iraqi bastion Mosul, prompting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to declare “the end” of the “fake” terrorist state.
The SDF, backed by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, broke into Raqa on June 6 after spending months chipping away at terrorist territory around the city.
Its fighters have since captured two eastern and two western districts of the city and are pushing towards its centre, where ISIS fighters are holding tens of thousands of civilians.
Around 2,500 terrorists are fighting in the city, according to British Major General Rupert Jones, a deputy commander for the US-led coalition.
The SDF had surrounded the terrorists from the north, east and west but they were still able to escape across the Euphrates, which forms the southern border of the city.
Thursday’s advance saw SDF fighters capture the villages of Kasrat Afnan and Kasab on the southern bank of the Euphrates, cutting off the route the terrorists were using to withdraw to territory ISIS controls in the Syrian desert and in Deir Ezzor province.
The SDF has “continued to advance eastward south of the Euphrates River, moving to completely encircle ISIS in Raqa,” said Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition.
“The SDF now control all high-speed avenues of approach into Raqa from the south,” he added.
US-backed forces cut off the last escape route for the ISIS group from Raqa on Thursday, trapping the besieged terrorists inside their de facto Syrian capital.
But ISIS fighters hit back with a counterattack that included several suicide bombings against the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters trying to seize control of the city.
The SDF captured two villages on the southern bank of the Euphrates River that the terrorists had been passing through to withdraw from the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The SDF has been able to completely encircle Raqa,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
It was the latest setback for ISIS, which declared its “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq three years ago but has since lost most of the territory it once controlled.
It came too as Iraqi forces announced the recapture of an iconic mosque in ISIS’s last major Iraqi bastion Mosul, prompting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to declare “the end” of the “fake” terrorist state.
The SDF, backed by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, broke into Raqa on June 6 after spending months chipping away at terrorist territory around the city.
Its fighters have since captured two eastern and two western districts of the city and are pushing towards its centre, where ISIS fighters are holding tens of thousands of civilians.
Around 2,500 terrorists are fighting in the city, according to British Major General Rupert Jones, a deputy commander for the US-led coalition.
The SDF had surrounded the terrorists from the north, east and west but they were still able to escape across the Euphrates, which forms the southern border of the city.
Thursday’s advance saw SDF fighters capture the villages of Kasrat Afnan and Kasab on the southern bank of the Euphrates, cutting off the route the terrorists were using to withdraw to territory ISIS controls in the Syrian desert and in Deir Ezzor province.
The SDF has “continued to advance eastward south of the Euphrates River, moving to completely encircle ISIS in Raqa,” said Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition.
“The SDF now control all high-speed avenues of approach into Raqa from the south,” he added.
