Islamic State nearly removed from Raqqa after four-month siege

Oct. 17 (UPI) — The Kurdish-led, U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces are nearly in control of Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State stronghold.

The four-month siege of the defacto IS capital is nearly complete, with SDF forces occupying 95 percent of the city, Syria’s Al-Masdar News reported on Tuesday.

An unidentified field commander of the alliance of Arab and Kurdish militias said the operation is expected to end by Tuesday. Raqqa National Hospital was captured on Tuesday, as well as a public square infamous for IS executions and beheadings. An IS force numbering less than 300 is still fighting in one area of the city, SDF spokesman Mostafa Bali said, near the hospital and stadium. A convoy of IS troops and their families left the city on Saturday, SDF added.

An official announcement of SDF control of the city, whose population was once about 220,000, is imminent, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The mission to force IS out of Raqqa, called “Euphrates Wrath,” has involved fierce battles between IS jihadists and SDF forces supported by U.S. Special Forces. Airstrikes by a U.S.-led international coalition destroyed about 80 percent of the city, SOHR said.

IS lost Mosul, Iraq, the largest city under its control, in July. It now controls only a small strip of Syrian territory in the Euphrates valley south of the city of Deir Ezzor.