ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Ten days into the Raqqa offensive, the mainly-Kurdish Syrian forces have so far liberated four districts, and fighting is reported in three more districts, with the ISIS group reported to have staged a counter-attack against the US-backed forces, a conflict monitor reported.
The observatory reported this morning that one man and his three children died as the result of a US-led coalition airstrikes, amid fears that the civilian casualties are already too high in an air campaign mainly conducted by the United States.
The SDF announced its forces “managed the entire liberation of al-Sinaa” on Thursday and were moving northward into the Batani neighborhood on Friday.
A Reuters journalist posted photos said to be taken in Sinaa showing SDF fighters wearing YPG patches walking through mounds of rubble, shattered concrete blocks from destroyed structures. No civilians could be seen in the photos.
Sinaa is located directly east of the Baghdad Gate which is the entrance into Old Raqqa where the Raqqa Tower is located.
Footage released by YPG-affiliated ANHA media reported to show ongoing clashes on Thursday in Batani between SDF fighters on rooftops and ISIS militants.
The campaign said late on Thursday that “battles intensified” in Hateen, one of the western-most districts of the city, and fighting continued in Roumaniyah. .
Video broadcast on Raqqa TV on Thursday claimed to show ISIS using an anti-tank guided missile to strike a group of YPG fighters in area west of the city. Rudaw was unable to confirm its authenticity.
The SDF released video on Thursday of its forces burning an underground tunnel in the western area of al-Sibahiyah “containing weapons and ammunition for ISIS.” SDF also reported it still contained some ISIS “members.”
As part of its three-axis advance which began on June 6, the campaign posted photos on Thursday of the city’s sugar factory in the far northeast of the city and declared it recaptured.
The campaign announced people from Raqqa were being transferred to camps in nearby Ain Issa.
War investigators commissioned by the United Nations expressed their concerns on Thursday over the loss of the civilian lives in the campaign to defeat ISIS in the city.
“We note in particular that the intensification of airstrikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced,” Paulo Pinheiro, the chairman of UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria testified to the UN Human Right Office in Geneva.
Some of the displaced say they were targeted when they try to flee, while others say they fled because of airstrikes.
"[We fled] because of the airstrikes, and there were Daesh [ISIS] bases near to our homes so we escaped through Al Jazra street. There are a lot of clashes because of Daesh. What we want is to safely go back to our homes, and find them intact. That is all," Reuters reported one displaced person, Iman Faisal, as saying.
An estimated 230,000 civilians are living in Raqqa, according to the UN.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have entered three Raqqa districts of al-Batani, to the east, and Hateen and Barid, to the west of the city, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Friday.
The SDF have already liberated the four districts of Sinaa, and Mushlab, east of the city, and Roumaniyah and Sabahiya in the west, according to SOHR.
The SDF, a coalition of various groups but mainly dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), launched its offensive to recapture the ISIS de facto capital in Syria on June 6.
The observatory reported this morning that one man and his three children died as the result of a US-led coalition airstrikes, amid fears that the civilian casualties are already too high in an air campaign mainly conducted by the United States.
The air strike targeted an area in Intifadha district of Raqqa city overnight.
The SDF announced its forces “managed the entire liberation of al-Sinaa” on Thursday and were moving northward into the Batani neighborhood on Friday.
A Reuters journalist posted photos said to be taken in Sinaa showing SDF fighters wearing YPG patches walking through mounds of rubble, shattered concrete blocks from destroyed structures. No civilians could be seen in the photos.
Sinaa is located directly east of the Baghdad Gate which is the entrance into Old Raqqa where the Raqqa Tower is located.
Footage released by YPG-affiliated ANHA media reported to show ongoing clashes on Thursday in Batani between SDF fighters on rooftops and ISIS militants.
The campaign said late on Thursday that “battles intensified” in Hateen, one of the western-most districts of the city, and fighting continued in Roumaniyah. .
Video broadcast on Raqqa TV on Thursday claimed to show ISIS using an anti-tank guided missile to strike a group of YPG fighters in area west of the city. Rudaw was unable to confirm its authenticity.
The SDF released video on Thursday of its forces burning an underground tunnel in the western area of al-Sibahiyah “containing weapons and ammunition for ISIS.” SDF also reported it still contained some ISIS “members.”
As part of its three-axis advance which began on June 6, the campaign posted photos on Thursday of the city’s sugar factory in the far northeast of the city and declared it recaptured.
The campaign announced people from Raqqa were being transferred to camps in nearby Ain Issa.
War investigators commissioned by the United Nations expressed their concerns on Thursday over the loss of the civilian lives in the campaign to defeat ISIS in the city.
“We note in particular that the intensification of airstrikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced,” Paulo Pinheiro, the chairman of UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria testified to the UN Human Right Office in Geneva.
Some of the displaced say they were targeted when they try to flee, while others say they fled because of airstrikes.
"[We fled] because of the airstrikes, and there were Daesh [ISIS] bases near to our homes so we escaped through Al Jazra street. There are a lot of clashes because of Daesh. What we want is to safely go back to our homes, and find them intact. That is all," Reuters reported one displaced person, Iman Faisal, as saying.
An estimated 230,000 civilians are living in Raqqa, according to the UN.
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