US-backed Kurdish forces break into ISIL-held Raqqa

Arab and Kurdish SDF fighters advanced to the city’s eastern edge after seven months of logistical planning from military advisers, weapons deliveries, and backing by the US-led coalition air support.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Silo speaks during a news conference in Hukoumiya village in Raqqa, Syria June 6, 2017.REUTERS/Rodi Said

HAZIMA, SYRIA // American-backed forces broke into the city of Raqqa on Tuesday as they launched a final assault to drive ISIL from its self-declared capital in Syria.

Talal Sello, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces made the long-awaited announcement that the battle for Raqqa itself had begun, saying, “We declare today the start of the great battle to liberate the city of Raqqa, the so-called capital of terrorism and terrorists. With the international coalition’s warplanes and the state-of-the-art weapons they provided to us, we will seize Raqqa from Daesh.”

The attack on the northern city at the heart of ISIL’s Syrian territory has been seven months in the making and is backed by air support, military advisers and weapons deliveries from the US-led coalition.

Seized by the jihadists in early 2014, Raqqa became notorious as a hub for IS’s operations in Syria, Iraq and beyond.

The city has been the scene of some of the group’s worst atrocities, including gruesome executions, public displays of bodies and the trafficking of women.

The SDF launched its operation to take Raqqa — dubbed “Wrath of the Euphrates” -- in November.

It was one of the twin pivots of ISIL’s so-called “caliphate,” with Mosul in neighbouring Iraq — where US-backed forces are also bearing down on the extremists.

After months sealing off access routes to the city from the east, north and west, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday entered the city limits for the first time.

“They are fighting street battles inside Raqa now, and we have experience in urban warfare,” said SDF commander Rajda Felat.

Mr Sello urged civilians inside the city to keep away from ISIL positions and from the front lines. The United Nations said it was concerned for the safety of more than 400,000 men, women and children in Raqqa province who may be caught up in the violence.

As the SDF has drawn closer to the city, reports of civilian casualties in coalition air strikes have swelled.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes in Al Meshleb, with heavy air atrikes by the US-led coalition, had forced ISIL members to withdraw from more than half of the district. The SDF was also trying to push into Raqqa’s northwestern district of Al Andalus, as fighting continued to the north, east and west of the city.

Defeating ISIL in Raqa would “deliver a decisive blow to the idea of ISIS as a physical caliphate”, said coalition commander Lieutenant General Steve Townsend.

“We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester,” he said. “ISIL threatens all our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our homelands as well.”

It then scored a series of victories in the wider province, including capturing the strategic town of Tabqa and its adjacent dam in May.

* Agence France-Presse