Still reeling from the Paris carnage that killed 129 people, a lot of them youths, France formally requested European Union assistance in its fight against the militants.
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But after over a year of USA coalition airstrikes, the Islamic State has learned to secure its weapons, communications systems and fighters in fortified bunkers or densely populated residential areas where bombing would inflict intolerably high civilian casualties, analysts and activists said.
“Our air force’s military work in Syria must not simply be continued”, he said. Abandoned ISIL (Islamic State group) posts were targeted at the entrance of the city, along with ISIL checkpoints and several other points.
But, civilians living in Raqqa differ with these reports saying Islamic State continues to control the whole city.
A U.S.-led coalition has attacked the group at its strongholds in eastern Syria and northern Iraq for more than a year.
Russia, which in September began launching airstrikes against armed opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, also launched air attacks on the city on Tuesday.
The observatory, which relies on a network of activists on ground, said at least 33 IS militants were killed over the past three days as a result of the intensified French air strikes.
Local activists say the increased bombardment, including last week’s assassination of the executioner known as Jihadi John, has spread fear and paranoia through the militants’ ranks.
The Russian strikes on Raqqa came as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for what the Kremlin said was a bomb that brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt and to intensify air strikes against Islamists in Syria.
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Western officials said Russian Federation launched a “significant number” of strikes in Syria on Tuesday, hitting the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
