Noose tightening around Daesh in Raqqa

An SDF's fighter stand guard at the weapons manufacturing plant of the Islamic State militants captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces near the stadium in Raqqa, Syria on October 4, 2017. (Reuters)

RAQQA: US-backed forces are all set to make a final assault on Daesh’s last line of defense in its former Syrian capital Raqqa, a field commander said.
The loss of Daesh’s remaining streets and buildings in Raqqa following its defeat in Iraq’s Mosul this year and its retreat from swathes of territory in both countries, would mark a major milestone in the battle to destroy the terrorist group.
The assault on militants in the center of the northern city will focus on surrounding the sports stadium there, said a field commander in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in western Raqqa, who gave his name as Ardal Raqqa.
“Daesh is massing there because this is the last stage. They will resist, or they will surrender or die,” he said. “This their last stand to the death.”
Raqqa was the group’s de facto Syrian capital, a center of operations where it oversaw the management of much of eastern, central and northern Syria and planned attacks abroad.
Now it is hemmed into a small area in the city center that includes the stadium, the National Hospital and a roundabout where Daesh once displayed the heads of its enemies.
Daesh has lost most of its territory to the SDF, spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, and to a rival offensive by the Syrian regime’s army and allied forces this year, and has fallen back on the fertile Euphrates valley area downstream of Raqqa.
The army and its allies reached the city of Deir Al-Zor in September after a months-long offensive across the Syrian desert.
On Sunday a Syrian military source said they had encircled Daesh fighters in the city of Al-Mayadin, one of the terrorists’ last strongholds in the area.
“Units of our armed forces with the allied forces continue their advance on a number of fronts and axes in Deir Al-Zor and its countryside... and encircle Daesh terrorists in the city of Al-Mayadin,” the military source said.
However, the group has still been able to launch a series of effective counter attacks against the regime’s army in the central desert region over the past week, putting pressure on the main supply road to Deir Al-Zor from the west.
The US-backed SDF campaign has mostly been on the east bank, where Raqqa is located, and has also advanced downstream to hold areas opposite Deir Al-Zor. The US and Russia have put in place channels to lessen the risk of fighting between the rival offensives they back.
US officials have previously said that Daesh had relocated some of its diminished command and propaganda structures to Al-Mayadin as it was forced from territory elsewhere.
The spokeswoman for the SDF campaign in Raqqa, Jihan Sheikh Ahmad, said in a statement on a website for the campaign that it would announce the liberation of Raqqa “in the coming few days” after having captured 85 percent of the city.
Commanders directing the battle in Raqqa have said that Daesh fighters have taken civilian hostages and are using sniper fire, booby traps and tunnels to slow the SDF advance.
The SDF began its campaign to isolate Raqqa early this year, pushing along several fronts to enclose the city against the Euphrates backed by coalition airstrikes and special forces.
Its attack on the city itself started in June and the fighting left much of Raqqa in ruins, as intense airstrikes and street-to-street battles devastated buildings.