US-backed SDF militants start final assault on Daesh-held Raqqah
Militants from US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have launched an operation to retake the last pocket of the northern Syrian city of Raqqah, which served as Daesh Takfiri terrorist group's de facto capital in the war-ravaged Arab country.
The SDF announced in a statement on Sunday that the operation would continue “until all the city is cleansed from terrorists who refused to surrender.”
On June 6, the SDF said it had launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah.
The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris’ administrative and control tasks the following year.
The US-backed Syrian militants said most of Daesh terrorists who remain in Raqqah, located about 455 kilometers (283 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, were foreigners.
The SDF said the initiative by local tribesmen and members of the Raqqah Civil Council “succeeded in evacuating civilians who were still in the city and the surrender of 275 local mercenaries and their families.”
Meanwhile, SDF spokesman, Talal Sello, said between 200 and 300 Daesh terrorists, mostly foreigners, remained in Raqqah, adding that more than 3,000 civilians had fled the city.
“More than 3,000 civilians left on Saturday night as part of a deal and went to areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces,” he said.
The SDF spokesman further noted that “Raqqah is now empty of civilians, who had been taken as human shields. Only 250 to 300 foreign terrorists, who refused the deal and decided to stay and fight until the end, remain in the city and relatives of some [Daesh] members are with them.”
Sello said the evacuation deal had been negotiated between local officials from the Raqqah Civil Council and Daesh militants.
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