US State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said at a press briefing on Tuesday that Washington coordinated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in efforts to reclaim Raqqa, but declined to elaborate whether it was cooperating with Russian Federation in the liberation campaign.
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The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the SDF yet had to seize major strategic positions, adding that IS was “concentrating 2,000 fighters along the front lines north of Raqqa”.
Officials from Anbar, the vast western province in which Fallujah is located, reported that small numbers of civilians had managed to sneak out.
IS has declared Raqqa its capital in Syria.
A statement by the Islamic State’s chief spokesman on Saturday appeared to acknowledge unease among residents of the city, according to Ahmed Mhidi of the Syrian activist group Eyes on the City, which monitors Islamic State activity in northern Syria. “They are providing advice and assistance”, Cook said, adding that their “advise-and-assist role has not changed”. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the move in a video posted online.
Turkey regards the YPG as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and has been at odds with the US over the latter’s treatment of the YPG, which is the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
The Syrian Democratic Forces, a seven-month-old alliance between Kurdish and Arab forces, launched an offensive on Tuesday in areas north of Raqqa.
“On the rooftop of this house, there are US forces using (anti-tank) TOW missiles to fire on the explosives-rigged cars that Daesh (ISIL) is using to attack the SDF”, he said.
Fighting was reportedly ongoing on Tuesday near Ain Issa, situated around 55km from the ISIL-controlled city.
She adds that the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces say the goal is to “seize the countryside north of Raqqa, and that forces from the US -led coalition will accompany the campaign”. She reports that the US -led coalition is providing air support in both places.
Moreover, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner acknowledged the presence of US forces, but did not want to talk about the pictures.
Raqqa sits in the center of the province of the same name, which borders Turkey to the north.
This comes after US warplanes dropped pamphlets on Raqqa last week “urging residents to flee”, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Americans advisers have been trying to pull together enough local fighters to capture Raqqa, the main prize in northern Syria, for weeks.
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“It is going to take a very big and important effort”. Write to us in the Comments section and visit us on our Facebook page. “They will fight to retain their territorial capital”. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English.
