Beirut: US-backed Syrian fighters on Friday seized part of a district on the western edge of the IS group’s Raqa bastion and battled to advance inside the city’s east, a monitor said.
The Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) broke into Raqa city for the first time earlier this week, months after they launched an operation to capture the extremist stronghold.
They are backed by the US-led coalition which carried out heavy air strikes on Raqa and its surroundings overnight and into Friday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said SDF fighters took parts of the suburb of Jazra just west of Raqa’s city limits on Friday.
The monitor said heavy clashes were continuing in other parts of the neighbourhood, where at least 15 civilians were killed on Thursday night in the air strikes that hit an Internet cafe. The casualties in Jazra were among 23 civilians killed in over two dozen US-led coalition strikes on and near Raqa on Thursday night, the Observatory said.
SDF spokesman Talal Sello said fighters were advancing on several fronts on Friday. “The SDF has control of Al Meshleb district (inside eastern Raqa) and is clearing it of mines and explosives at the moment,” he said.
He said SDF forces had also advanced on the northern front outside the city. The SDF media department said four local journalists were wounded on Friday when an IS mortar landed near them as they made their way towards Al Meshleb.
They were evacuated to hospital and were not seriously wounded, it said. Al-Meshleb was the first neighbourhood in Raqa city entered by SDF fighters.
They are expected to progress from the district into neighbouring Al Senaa, and the Observatory said some of the overnight strikes targeted area between the two districts.
IS fighters have been fighting back against the advancing forces with snipers as well as drones armed with explosives, according to the SDF.
They have also reportedly dug defensive trenches and tunnels to try to slow the SDF advance.
“Hundreds” of US military personnel are taking part in the Raqa offensive, according to the Pentagon, which said on Thursday it believed up to 2,500 IS fighters were still holed up in Raqa. Captured by the extremists in 2014, Raqa has become synonymous with IS atrocities including beheadings and public displays of bodies, and also emerged as a hub for planning attacks abroad.
An estimated 300,000 civilians were believed to have been living under IS rule in Raqa, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of Syria.
But thousands have fled in recent months, and the UN humanitarian office estimates about 160,000 people remain in the city.
The UN children’s agency Unicef warned on Friday that “an estimated 40,000 children remain trapped in dangerous conditions in Raqa city.”
“Many are caught in the crossfire,” said Unicef regional director Geert Cappelaere.
“Children are deprived of the most basic and life-saving necessities,” he added, urging safe passage for those who want to leave the city.
The Doctors Without Borders NGO (MSF) also warned that Raqa’s civilians were left facing a “deadly choice”.
“Parents have to make an impossible decision,” said MSF emergency coordinator Puk Leenders.
“Either they stay in Raqa, subjecting their children to increased violence and air strikes, or they take them over the frontline, knowing they will need to cross minefields and may be caught in the crossfire.”
Tens of thousands of people have fled Raqa and the surrounding area since the SDF launched its Operation Wrath of the Euphrates to capture the IS bastion last November.
Elsewhere in Syria, a US warplane shot down a pro-regime drone on Thursday night near the Jordanian border in the latest incident in escalating tensions in the country’s south.
The US-led coalition said the drone was downed after it fired at coalition forces near the Al Tanaf garrison, where anti-IS Syrian rebels are being trained.
Also on Thursday, coalition forces struck “technical vehicles” advancing towards Al Tanaf, US Central Command said in a statement. — AFP
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