HUKOUMIYA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday it had launched an operation to capture Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto Syrian capital, piling pressure on the jihadists whose self-declared caliphate is in retreat across Syria and Iraq.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters on their way to Raqqa, Syria June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said

SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters the battle started on Monday and the fighting would be fierce “because Daesh (Islamic State) will die to defend their so-called capital”.

The assault overlaps with the final stages of the U.S.-backed attack to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State. It follows months of advances to the north, east and west of Raqqa by the SDF, which includes Arab and Kurdish militias.

Islamic State captured Raqqa from rebel groups in 2014 and has used it as an operations base to plan attacks in the West. Silo said the assault had begun from the north, east and west of the city, which is bordered to the south by the River Euphrates.

The commander of the Raqqa campaign, Rojda Felat, told Reuters SDF fighters were attacking the al-Mishlab district at the city’s southeastern outskirts, confirming an earlier report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The coalition has a big role in the success of the operations. In addition to warplanes, there are coalition forces working side by side with the SDF,” Silo said by phone from the Hukoumiya farms area, 10 km (6 miles) north of Raqqa, where the SDF later declared the start of the assault.

A Reuters witness at the location could hear the sound of heavy shelling and air strikes in the distance.

The U.S.-led coalition said the fight for Raqqa would be “long and difficult” but would deliver a “decisive blow to the idea of ISIS (Islamic State) as a physical caliphate”.

HARD FIGHTING

“It’s hard to convince new recruits that ISIS is a winning cause when they just lost their twin ‘capitals’ in both Iraq and Syria,” Lt. Gen Steve Townsend, the coalition commanding general, said in a coalition statement.

“We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester, England,” said Townsend. “ISIS threatens all of our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our own homelands as well. This cannot stand.”

“Once ISIS is defeated in both Mosul and (Raqqa), there will still be a lot of hard fighting ahead,” he said.

From Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon, coalition warplanes and artillery hit IS boats, tactical units, fighting positions, vehicles and a weapons store, spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said.

The coalition struck 19 boats that jihadists were using to ferry fighters and equipment across the Euphrates - their only means of accessing the city from land they control on the south bank, he said.

Security officials in the West have warned of increased threat of attacks such as last month’s Manchester suicide bombing and Saturday’s attack in London as Islamic State loses ground in Syria and Iraq. Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State.

An Arab group fighting with the SDF, the Syrian Elite Forces, which was established in February, had entered al-Mishlab with coalition air support, its spokesman Mohammed al-Shaker said by phone.

“The Syrian Elite Forces one or two hours ago entered the first quarter of Raqqa, which is al-Mishlab quarter, via the eastern front,” he said.

The Observatory said the SDF had captured some buildings in the al-Mishlab area and Islamic State fighters had withdrawn from parts of the district. The Observatory also said an attack was underway against a military barracks, Division 17, on the northern outskirts of Raqqa.

The U.S.-led coalition has said 3,000-4,000 Islamic State fighters are thought to be holed up in Raqqa city, where they have erected defences against the anticipated assault. The city is about 90 km (56 miles) from the border with Turkey.

The SDF includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia.

Fighting around Raqqa since late last year has displaced tens of thousands of people, with many flooding camps in the area and others stranded in the desert.

CIVILIAN DEATHS

The U.N. human rights office has raised concerns about increasing reports of civilian deaths as air strikes escalate.

The Raqqa campaign has “resulted in massive civilian casualties, displacement and serious infrastructure destruction” so far, it said in a May report. Islamic State militants have also reportedly been preventing civilians from leaving, it said.

The U.S.-led coalition says it tries to avoid civilian casualties in its bombing runs in Syria and Iraq and investigates any allegations.

It is unclear how many civilians remain in Raqqa.

U.N. humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke told Reuters that, for its planning purposes, the United Nations estimates there are approximately 160,000 people left in Raqqa city, but said this was not a formal estimate.

Humanitarian aid organization International Rescue Committee said 200,000 people were still trapped inside, and warned civilians in Raqqa risk being killed by Islamic State snipers or mines if they try to flee but could be used by the militants as human shields if they remain.

“The IRC has seen a drop in the number of people escaping Raqqa over the past week,” its Middle East Director of Public Affairs Thomas Garofalo said, adding this may indicate Islamic State intended to use them as human shields.

Dillon said the SDF had encouraged civilians to quit Raqqa to avoid this fate and had set up screening centers on front lines to separate civilian refugees from fleeing fighters.

He said the coalition expected IS to use similar tactics to those it had employed during the months-long battle in Mosul, including the use of armored car bombs as its “weapon of choice”.

“They have had three years to establish their defences there. We expect a fight very similar to what we’ve seen in Mosul,” he said, while adding that Raqqa is a much smaller city.

The Raqqa campaign has been the source of tension between the United States and Turkey, which fears growing Kurdish influence in northern Syria and has lobbied Washington to abandon its Kurdish YPG allies.

The YPG has been the main partner for the United States in its campaign against Islamic State in Syria, where the group is also being fought in separate campaigns waged by the Russian-backed Syrian government and Free Syrian Army rebel groups.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Silo speaks during a news conference in Hukoumiya village in Raqqa, Syria June 6, 2017.REUTERS/Rodi Said

The United States last week said it had started distributing arms to the YPG to help take Raqqa.

The SDF has said it will hand control of Raqqa to a civilian council after its capture, as in other areas the SDF took from Islamic State.

The SDF and YPG control a swathe of northeastern Syria from the Iraqi border to the city of Manbij on the western banks of the Euphrates. The main Kurdish groups and their allies have established autonomous administration in the areas under their control, which they aim to preserve in any peace deal.</s>The United States-led international coalition's operation to recapture Raqqa from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant started on the night of June 2, Turkey's prime minister has said, informing that Washington briefed Ankara ahead of the operation.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Turkish Daily News.</s>BEIRUT, June 5 (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State will announce the start date for the final assault on Raqqa city on Tuesday, aiming to oust the militants from their de facto capital in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday.

The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. On Saturday the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, part of the SDF, told Reuters the fifth and final stage of the attack would start in the coming "few days". (Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Angus MacSwan)</s>BEIRUT -- Syrian government forces pounded parts of the southern city of Daraa with airstrikes and artillery fire, activists reported Sunday, a day after rebels attacked government positions in the southern city.

Much of Daraa has been reduced to rubble, and the two sides are exchanging fire through the shells of buildings, footage released by Syrian military media and the al-Qaida-linked Abaa News Agency showed.

Opposition activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh recorded 90 missile and bomb strikes by government forces as of Sunday afternoon. Footage from the Syrian military media showed clouds of smoke and dust rising over the city.

At least 31 fighters had been killed in the clashes since late Friday, with fatalities distributed nearly evenly between the two sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.

The fighting has underscored the frailty of the de-escalation agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran a month ago. The three powers are supposed to guarantee cease-fires across four zones in Syria, including Daraa. Russia said it would delineate the four zones by Sunday, but no announcement has been made.

Earlier in the weekend, rebels, including al-Qaida-linked fighters, attacked government and allied positions in the city's Manshiyeh district.

"The regime sent 200 of its men to Manshiyeh yesterday. The fighters were afraid of an operation, so they attacked first," al-Masalmeh said.

Casualties could not be independently verified, but a rebel operations room said several Hezbollah fighters had been killed. The Lebanese militant group has deployed thousands of its fighters to Syria in support of President Bashar Assad's forces.

The Observatory said at least three different parts of the city came under rocket and missile attack by government forces on Sunday, and that rebels returned fire.

The government and its allies have sent reinforcements to the city, including at least seven tanks and 20 other armed vehicles, according to al-Masalmeh, who said rebels could see the government's troop movements on the highway connecting Daraa to Damascus.

Daraa was the site of some of the earliest demonstrations in 2011 against the Assad family's four-decade rule. A violent government crackdown and the rise of an armed insurgency eventually plunged the country into civil war.

The fighting has displaced half of Syria's population and claimed about 400,000 lives.

Daraa's population was around 100,000 before the war.

Elsewhere in Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Sunday reported capturing a third dam from Islamic State militants on the Euphrates River as they approached the northern city of Raqqa, the militants' self-declared capital. A spokesman for the Syrian Defense Forces said Saturday that the group would launch its battle for Raqqa "within days."

The Kurdish-led group aims to establish an autonomous zone along the Turkish border.</s>Days after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Maldives, the Hadi government in Yemen and the Libyan House of Representatives government cut off all relations with Qatar, the US resumed missile strikes on Raqqa, the self-proclaimed ISIS capital on occupied Syrian territory.

The missiles have been launched from the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group which yesterday left port in Dubai in the UAE and sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean.

This comes as the US backed Kurdish led SDF forces make a strong push on Raqqa by land.

In many ways the timing of these events is more unusual than the events themselves.

Many had long suspected that it was only a matter of time before the Kurdish/US siege of Raqqa transformed into an attempt to take the city from ISIS.

What’s more though is that it seems that either by design or by mistake, Raqqa will not be the military ‘prize’ it once was. Recently, SDF forces allowed ISIS fighters and commanders to slip out of Raqqa and head towards Deir ez-Zor. This was the proximate cause of Russia launching missiles at ISIS targets outside of Palmyra on the 31st of May this year in order to help clear the road towards Deir ez-Zor for the Syrian Arab Army who are engaged in a fierce battle with ISIS for control of the city which has become one of the last ISIS hotbeds in Syria.

The timing of this is all too suspicious to be ignored. This is especially true after Donald Trump Tweeted his approval of the Saudi led isolation of Qatar, a country which remains on the same side of the battle field in Syria, arming and funding jihadists, although if things continue as they are now, Qatar’s resources may find themselves suddenly stretched.

READ MORE: Donald Trump breaks his silence over Qatar

The entire ‘siege of Raqqa’ is after all, one part reality and one part fantasy. One the one hand, it has been the long time self-proclaimed capital of the so-called Islamic State and the SDF has been fighting to seal it off from neighbouring regions. Likewise, if the US and/or US backed Kurdish forces ultimately take the city, it could be a bargaining chip for both US imperial and Kurdish separatist desires in a post-war settlement.

The fantastical plan is related to the reality in many ways. America is not needed to liberate Raqqa from ISIS, not least if the America style of liberation is as gruesome and blood-soaked as it has been in and around the Iraqi city of Mosul.

READ MORE: Disturbing images emerge of torture in ‘liberated’ Iraq

If America simply ceased funding jihadist groups under the guise of ‘moderate rebellion’ and likewise urged its Gulfi and Turkish allies to do the same, the Syrian led anti-terrorist coalition would be ore than capable of liberating Raqqa without the illegal assistance of countries like the US who have no legal mandate of any sort to be operating in Syria.

But this does not suit the narrative of an easy symbolic victory for the US. If Qatar’s isolation does in fact make some of their Salafist proxies ‘go on strike’ until further payment, combined with many of ISIS’ most ferocious villains having all ready left Raqqa, the United States can at long last say that it has done something meaningful against terrorism. It could achieve the symbolic victory that many in the US, including Donald Trump hunger for.

There is an element of Shakespearean comedy to the whole thing, that is to say, there would be if the entire situation wasn’t an imperialist war-crime on top of an ISIS war crime of bestial occupation.

There is little doubt that the timing of the US strikes of Raqqa and the isolating of Qatar are related. If one were to ask Hillary Clinton, she might confess that in her mind they are more related than the United States election on the 8th of November last year and the fact that she isn’t the one ordering the strikes.</s>HUKOUMIYA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday it had launched a battle to capture Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto Syrian capital, piling pressure on the jihadists whose self-declared caliphate is in retreat across Syria and Iraq.</s>HUKOUMIYA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday it had begun a battle to capture Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria, launching attacks from the east, west and north of the city.

 Original Article</s>A U.S.-backed Syrian force launched a major offensive on the northern city of Raqqa on Tuesday in an attempt to capture the de facto capital of the Islamic State terror group after three years of control.

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Syrian Arab Coalition partners began moving toward the de facto capital of ISIS in November. Clashes under the cover of U.S.-led coalition led fighters to the northern and eastern gates of the city last week. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said fighters in the city couldn't leave because all the bridges across the Euphrates have been disabled.

Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend, commanding general the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, told Fox News the operation, in conjuction U.S. special operations troops as advisors, is expected to be long and difficult, but it would deliver a blow to the idea of ISIS as a physical caliphate. It could also be a major turning point in the war against the extremists.

"It's hard to convince new recruits that ISIS is a winning cause when they just lost their twin 'capitals' in both Iraq and Syria," Townsend told Fox News.

NOTRE DAME HAMMER ATTACK SUSPECT YELLED 'THIS IS FOR SYRIA'

"We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester, England," Townsend said. "ISIS threatens all of our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our own homelands as well. This cannot stand."

There are an estimated 55,000 Syrian Defense Forces, including 26,000 Syrian Kurds.

Airstrikes likely carried out by the U.S.-led coalition began on Monday, killing 21 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Raqqa is currently surrounded from the east, north and west, and opposition activists have reported intense shelling and airstrikes on the city since Monday night, which killed at least 12 people.

On Tuesday, airstrikes also by U.S.-led coalition killed 12 people, including women and children, state news agency SANA reported.

Davis said "Raqqa will be important step" in defeating the Islamic State group.

“Today is Day 1 of the effort to defeat ISIS in Raqqa," Davis said.

"We know that Raqqa as a capital of the caliphate was where the external operations were planned, especially plots against Europe and the West."

ISIS captured Raqqa in January 2014, one of the first cities the terrorist group gained control. It has been home to some of the most prominent leaders, including those who planned the November 2015 Paris attacks and other international assaults. However, it has lost much of its territory it initially claimed over the years due to campaigns led by several Syrian and Iraqi forces.

Davis admitted that most of the leadership and bureaucratic functions and propaganda organs of IS had already moved out of Raqqa down the Euphrates River Valley to Mayadin and Deir al Zour, estimating only several hundred fighters remaining in the city.

The extremists are not expected to give up its hold on Raqqa easily. ISIS has been fortifying its positions in Raqqa for months, setting up barriers and hanging sheets of cloth over main streets to provide cover from warplanes.

Iraqi forces launched an offensive to capture the northern city of Mosul, the largest held by ISIS, in October, and heavy fighting is still underway there.

A belt of land mines and militant checkpoints circle Raqqa. Inside, all the men have been ordered to wear the jihadi garb of baggy pants and long shirts in order to make it more difficult to distinguish militants from civilians.

Fox News' Alexandra Rego, Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>(AP) – A U.S.-backed Syrian force says it has begun an offensive to capture the northern city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.

 Talal Sillo, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told reporters Tuesday that operations have begun in coordination with the U.S.-led coalition.

 SDF fighters began advancing toward Raqqa in November, capturing wide areas from the extremists. Last week, they reached the northern and eastern gates of the city.

 Raqqa is currently surrounded from the east, north and west, and opposition activists have reported intense shelling on the city since Monday night, which killed at least 12 people.

 The battle is likely to be long and bloody, and the extremists are not expected to give up easily.</s>A U.S.-backed Syrian force says it has begun an offensive to capture the northern city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.

Talal Sillo, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told reporters Tuesday that operations have begun in co-ordination with the U.S.-led coalition.

SDF fighters began advancing toward Raqqa in November, capturing wide areas from the extremists. Last week, they reached the northern and eastern gates of the city.

Raqqa is currently surrounded from the east, north and west and opposition activists have reported intense shelling on the city since Monday night.

Syria's state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday that airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition killed 12 people, including women and children. It says the families were fleeing the city in boats across the Euphrates River ahead of an expected all-out attack by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

April 30, 2017 photo provided by the Syria Democratic Forces, shows a fighter from the SDF carrying weapons as he looks toward the northern town of Tabqa, Syria. Turkey is unhappy that the U.S. has armed Kurdish fighters with heavier weapons in the battle for Raqqa. (Syrian Democratic Forces/Associated Press)

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 21 people were killed in Monday night airstrikes. It said they were likely carried out by the U.S.-led coalition.

The airstrikes have intensified in recent weeks as SDF fighters have reached the outskirts of the city.

SDF spokesman Talal Silo said the battle for Raqqa will be "fierce because Daesh [ISIS] will die to defence their so-called capital."

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday the Ankara will retaliate immediately if the operation by U.S.-backed forces to capture Raqqa presents a threat to Turkey.

Turkey views the Kurdish YPG militia within the Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist group aligned with militants who have fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984.
• Turkish official says U.S. arming of Kurds in Syria is 'unacceptable'
The United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces launch an operation to capture Raqqa, ISIL's de facto Syrian capital.