“We declare to our people the liberation of the Old City of Raqqa,” read a statement from spokesperson Cihan Sheikh Ahmed, published by the SDF.
With this advance, the SDF are now in control of 65 percent of Raqqa, she added, while clashes are ongoing in another six neighbourhoods as the US-backed forces are now on the edges of the city centre.
As the SDF gained significant ground on the battlefield, they received moral support via a visit from former French foreign minister and founder of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders), Bernard Kouchner.
Bernard Kouchner sits with members of the SDF on a recent visit to northern Syria. Photo: SDF
Kouchner visited SDF headquarters in Ain Issa, 50 kilometres north of Raqqa, according to reports from the SDF and the Kurdish YPG on Friday. He toured liberated areas and was briefed on the military and civilian situations and “confirmed his support for the SDF in their fight against terrorism,” the SDF stated.
The YPG stated Kouchner’s visit took place “recently.”
Inside Raqqa, the UK-based conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported “deteriorating humanitarian conditions as a result of the significant shortage in food stocks remaining to the thousands of people who are still residing in the ISIS-controlled areas.”
Noting intense coalition airstrikes, the Observatory documented the deaths of 23 civilians killed by recent airstrikes in central Raqqa.
Tens of civilians were able to escape ISIS-controlled areas the monitor reported on Friday, but an equal number were trapped, trying to reach safe areas amid ongoing clashes and shelling.
The UN is concerned that the safety of some 20,000 civilians trapped in the city or risking their lives to flee.
Amid heavy airstrikes and ISIS use of human shields “I am deeply concerned that civilians – who should be protected at all times – are paying an unacceptable price and that forces involved in battling [ISIS] are losing sight of the ultimate goal of this battle,” said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN high commissioner on human rights, on Thursday.
Outgoing coalition commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend told reporters on Thursday that “the death of civilians weighs heavy on our hearts. We should never seek to deny this or hide the true cost of war. But I say this with full conviction: The responsibility for civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria lies with ISIS, who have brought misery and death to this region.”
He added that the coalition and their partners do what they can to save civilian lives.
To date, the coalition has acknowledged the deaths of at least 685 civilians in their air campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Independent monitors and observers believe the number of civilian casualties to be much higher. The war monitor Airwars believes a minimum 5,117 civilians have been killed by the coalition in Iraq and Syria.
