ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syrian soldiers backed by Russian airstrikes continued their advance towards Islamic States’ (ISIS) stronghold city of Raqqa on Monday as the group comes under pressure from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Manbij. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group reported that Syrian special forces, known as ‘Desert Hawks’, are approaching the Tabqa airbase, lost to ISIS in August 2014. The Syrian military is approximately forty kilometers upstream of the Euphrates River from the city of Raqqa. The beginning of the offensive last Wednesday marked the first time that the Syrian military has had a presence on the ground in Raqqa province since the loss of al-Tabqa airbase. As of Monday 70 ISIS militants and nine Syrian soldiers have been killed as part of this offensive. It comes shortly after the Kurdish-led SDF launched an offensive to capture parts of the northern Raqqa province countryside late last month and shortly after they launched another offensive to capture the ISIS-held town of Manbij. The SDF offensives are being backed by US-led coalition airstrikes while the Syrian military offensive into Raqqa is backed by Syria’s “Russian friends", as the country’s official SANA news agency phrased it. Recapturing Tabqa airbase, which is also situated near the Tabqa Dam, is a key goal of this Syrian offensive. The SDF also hope to capture Tabqa as part of their offensive given its strategic significance and proximity to ISIS’s Raqqa stronghold. This Syrian offensive constitutes the most significant action Damascus has taken against ISIS since it recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from the group, late last March.
