Forces advance against ISIS

U.S.-backed Syrian fighters capture nearly half of Raqqa city

A U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighter on Thursday crosses a street on the front line of fighting with the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria.
A U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighter on Thursday crosses a street on the front line of fighting with the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria.

RAQQA, Syria -- U.S.-backed Syrian fighters have captured almost half of the Islamic State extremist group's self-declared capital of Raqqa, but the push into the city in northern Syria has slowed because of stiff resistance and explosives planted by the extremists, a spokesman for the fighters and monitors said Thursday.

The assault on Raqqa by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led fighting coalition, began June 6, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and U.S. troops advising local forces.

Since then, the Syrian forces have made steady advances from the eastern and western sides of the city, reaching the walled old quarter.

The fall of Raqqa would deal a blow to the extremist group, which earlier this month lost the Iraqi city of Mosul.

[THE ISLAMIC STATE: Timeline of group’s rise, fall; details on campaign to fight it]

Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, said 45 percent of Raqqa is now under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

In a series of tweets, he said the Syrian fighters cleared about 9 square miles of terrain this past week fighting against "stiff, sporadic resistance" from Islamic State militants entrenched in Raqqa.

Meanwhile, senior U.N. humanitarian official Ursula Mueller told the U.N. Security Council by video from Jordan on Thursday that an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people remain in Raqqa.

She said the city is encircled and "there is no way for them to get out."

Since April 1, over 200,000 people have fled their homes in the area around Raqqa, she said. The figure includes more than 30,000 displaced just this month as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters try to oust the extremists.

Nisreen Abdullah, a Kurdish spokesman, said the pace of the advance into Raqqa has slowed because of large amounts of explosives laid by Islamic State fighters.

As the extremists become more surrounded, they have increased their suicide attacks against fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, she added.

"Raqqa has become a booby-trapped city and this shows their [Islamic State's] weakness," said Abdullah, of the Women's Protection Units, speaking from northern Syria. "They are also using civilians as human shields, and this is slowing the push as well."

She also said the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish women fighters, now controls 45 percent of Raqqa. She added that since the offensive began, Syrian fighters have captured eight neighborhoods.

Plumes of smoke could be seen behind buildings in Raqqa a day earlier as the coalition pounded militant targets in the city. Syrian children looked on as U.S. armored vehicles drove by. One American soldier on a vehicle made the victory sign.

Mustafa Bali, who heads the Syrian forces' media center, confirmed Thursday that the group now has half of Raqqa and said the most important areas liberated in the past four days were the Nazlet Shehadeh and Panorama Square neighborhoods -- both on the southwestern part of the city.

But he said there are Islamic State counterattacks, militant sleeper cells and tunnels in the area.

"It was not easy, we have casualties and martyrs," he said, adding that the fighting was ongoing.

In the eastern front, where Syrian forces breached militant defenses on the edge of the old city about a month ago, fighters have reached the old citadel, a Syrian commander in charge of one sector in the front said.

"As we move forward, we find a tunnel every 100 meters," Jihad Khabat said. He said the enemy, "besieged and in distress," hides in deep and long tunnels under the city, from where they can hit Syrian fighters in daily counterattacks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Syrian fighters control half of Raqqa. The attacks on the city have claimed many casualties among the tens of thousands of civilians who are still trapped in areas controlled by the Islamic State.

The Observatory said 29 people, including eight children, were killed Wednesday in airstrikes on the city. The activist-operated Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group said 36 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in airstrikes and shelling.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/28/2017

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