The Kurdish-led SDF announced the liberation of the village 6 kilometres south of Raqqa Thursday afternoon, adding they had “killed four terrorists.”
The SDF now have full control of the south bank of the Euphrates and have completely encircled the extremist group’s self-proclaimed capital.
Conflict monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that forces from the Manbij Military Council, who have joined the Raqqa offensive under the SDF flag, made “strategic progress” south of the river.
The SDF are being backed on the ground and in the air by the US-led global coalition who have also provided arms and military equipment to the multi-ethnic force. On Tuesday, AFP’s Delil Souleiman reported the delivery of new weapons and tanks to the SDF.
Coalition spokesperson, Col. Ryan Dillon, welcomed their ally’s advances on Twitter, stating “ISIS fighters, abandoned by their leadership, are being pressured by the SDF from multiple axes around the city.”
Dillon stated that the SDF had cleared ISIS from about 20 square kilometres of territory in and around Raqqa over the past week.
“The SDF now control all high speed avenues of approach into Raqqah from the south,” he confirmed.
The Observatory noted that the complete encirclement of Raqqa took place on the third anniversary of the declaration of the so-called Islamic State caliphate. On June 29, 2017 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi stood in Mosul’s al-Nuri mosque and announced the creation of his state. In Mosul, that anniversary was marked by Iraqi forces taking control of the mosque, though it was destroyed last week by ISIS.
Two top coalition representatives continued their visit in northern Syria on Thursday.
Special US presidential envoy Brett McGurk and commander Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones met with the Tabqa Civilian Council, AFP reported.
On Wednesday, McGurk and Jones met with Raqqa civil leaders and SDF military commanders.
