The spokesperson for the SDF’s Raqqa liberation campaign, Cihan Sheikh Ahmed, reported on social media that their forces had clashed with ISIS militants at the dam.
The first photographs of the dam published by the campaign’s media office appear to have been taken on the northeastern shore of Lake Assad, across the lake from al-Tabqa town.
Earlier in the week, SDF fighters, in cooperation with the US-led coalition, crossed the Euphrates River in a nighttime airdrop mission where they took control of several villages and a portion of the road linking Raqqa with Aleppo.
The SDF on both sides of the river are now advancing on al-Tabqa town from the north and the west.
Tabqa dam is a strategic site that has been used by ISIS as a headquarters, training location, and prison.
There are fears that the dam, which has already taken some damage in the conflict, may be further damaged and burst, causing a disaster to communities living downriver. The coalition said in a published statement that it was taking precautions to ensure the dam’s integrity.
Taking al-Tabqa town and the dam will give the SDF “strategic advantage and launching point needed for the liberation” of Raqqa, the coalition stated.
France’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian predicted that the offensive on the urban center of Raqqa will begin in the coming days.
“Today, one can say that Raqqa is encircled, that the battle for Raqqa will start in the coming days,” he told CNews TV on Friday. “It will be a very hard battle, but a battle that is going to be of utmost importance.”
The SDF are closing in on the city, forming a crescent-shaped siege around ISIS’ de facto capital. To the west, they are about 25 kilometres away. Their forces are within 9 kilometres from the north. And to the east, they are less than 20 kilometres away.
The coalition carried out 22 airstrikes in the Raqqa area on Thursday, according to their daily strike report.
