Syrian Democratic Forces hold two-thirds of Raqqa: Monitor

Smoke rises from buildings following a strike on an opposition-held area of the Jobar district, east of the Syrian capital on Thursday. (AFP)

BEIRUT: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, now controls more than two-thirds of the Daesh group’s former Syrian stronghold Raqqa, a monitor said on Thursday.
The SDF entered Raqqa in early June, after months of fighting to encircle the city with support from the US-led coalition against IS.
The militia “controls 70 percent of Raqqa after taking the Al-Thakana district in the center of the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
“The advance was made possible by violent clashes and heavy air strikes by the international coalition,” he said.
“We can say that the battle for Raqqa has entered its final phase,” he added.
“The end of fighting will be dictated by the international coalition. Air power will be the main, determining factor.”
The fierce fighting has pushed civilians to flee away from the frontline into remaining Daesh-held areas in the north of the city, the monitor said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting since the SDF offensive began.
The UN estimates up to 25,000 people could remain trapped in the city, though the Observatory said the number is now fewer than 10,000.
The monitor said “a few hundred” terrorists remain in the city, adding that the SDF was continuing to sustain losses, with Daesh using mines and snipers to target the attacking force.
The SDF is also fighting a separate campaign in neighboring Deir Ezzor province, seeking to push the terrorists from territory they control in the oil-rich region that borders Iraq.
Meanwhile, Alexander Lavrentyev, Russia’s envoy for Syria, said an agreement was “very close” on a fourth safe zone in the country as a new round of talks began in Kazakhstan on ending the six-year war.
Speaking after negotiations involving regime backers Russia and Iran as well as Turkey, expressed confidence that deals for zones in four parts of the country would be finalized on Friday.
“We are very close to signing an agreement on all these four de-escalation zones,” he told journalists in Astana.
The two-day talks are the sixth round of negotiations Moscow has spearheaded this year as it seeks to pacify Syria after its game-changing intervention on the side of leader Bashar Assad.
The negotiators are looking to nail down details of a proposed “de-escalation” zone in the northern Idlib province, after Moscow plowed on with setting up three other safe areas around the country in a move that has seen violence drop.
There are still major disagreements over which force will be sent to police the zone covering rebel-held Idlib — on Syria’s northern border with Turkey — as Ankara and Tehran jockey for influence.
Russia has so far deployed military police to patrol the boundaries of three zones agreed in the south, in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, and in part of the central Homs province.
Idlib is the only province in Syria that remains entirely beyond regime control after having been captured in 2015 by an alliance of jihadists and rebels.
The talks were also attended by representatives of the Syrian regime and opposition, the UN and observers from the United States and Jordan.
More than 330,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Syrian war that began in 2011 as anti-government protests and millions have been displaced.