Hazima, Syria: US-backed fighters broke into the city of Raqqa on Tuesday as they launched a final assault to drive Daesh from its de facto Syrian capital.
The attack on the northern city at the heart of Daesh’s Syrian territory has been seven months in the making and is backed by air support, military advisers and weapons deliveries from the US-led coalition.
Seized by the militants in early 2014, Raqqa became notorious as a hub for Daesh’s operations in Syria, Iraq and beyond.
The city has been the scene of some of Daesh’s worst atrocities, including gruesome executions, public displays of bodies and the trafficking of women.
It was one of the twin pivots of Daesh’s so-called “caliphate,” with Mosul in neighbouring Iraq - where US-backed forces are also bearing down on the militants.
After months sealing off access routes to the city from the east, north and west, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday entered city limits for the first time.
“Our forces entered the city of Raqqa from the eastern district of Al Meshleb,” SDF commander Rojda Felat told AFP, adding that clashes were also raging on the city’s northern outskirts.
“They are fighting street battles inside Raqqa now, and we have experience in urban warfare,” she said.
The advance was backed by heavy air strikes by the US-led coalition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The coalition began its air campaign against Daesh in Iraq in August 2014, expanding its operations to Syria the following month.
The coalition appears keen to expel Daesh from its last major urban bastions before the “caliphate” turns three years old later this month.
Defeating Daesh in Raqqa would “deliver a decisive blow to the idea of Daesh as a physical caliphate,” coalition commander Lieutenant General Steve Townsend said.
Warning the fight would be “long and difficult,” Townsend framed the offensive as part of a greater struggle against Daesh, which has claimed attacks in many countries including last month’s deadly bombing in Manchester.
“We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester,” he said. “Daesh threatens all our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our homelands as well.”
The SDF launched its operation to take Raqqa - dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates - in November.
It then scored a series of victories in the wider province, including capturing the strategic town of Tabqa and its adjacent dam in May.
On Tuesday, SDF spokesman Talal Sello made the long-awaited announcement that the battle for Raqqa itself had begun.
“We declare today the start of the great battle to liberate the city of Raqqa, the so-called capital of terrorism and terrorists,” Sello told reporters in the village of Hazima, north of the city.
“With the international coalition’s warplanes and the state-of-the-art weapons they provided to us, we will seize Raqqa from Daesh,” Sello told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for Daesh.
Sello urged civilians inside the city to keep away from Daesh positions and from the front lines.
The United Nations said it was concerned for the safety of more than 400,000 men, women and children in Raqqa province who may be caught up in the violence.
As the SDF has drawn closer to the city, reports of civilian casualties in coalition air strikes have swelled.
On Monday, the Observatory said a coalition bombing raid killed 21 civilians as they tried to escape Raqqa by dinghy on the Euphrates River.
The same route leading out of the city’s southern districts has been used by Daesh fighters, Abdel Rahman said.
An estimated 300,000 civilians were believed to have been living under Daesh rule in Raqqa, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of the country.
Thousands have fled in recent months to other parts of the province or to makeshift camps in territory newly captured by the SDF.
But there are risks for civilians who try to escape the last cities under militant rule.
On Tuesday, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein accused Daesh of murdering dozens of civilians to prevent them from fleeing Mosul last week.
“Yesterday, my staff reported to me that bodies of murdered Iraqi men, women and children still lay on the streets of the al-Shira neighbourhood of western Mosul, after at least 163 people were shot and killed by Daesh to prevent them from fleeing,” he said.
More than 465,000 people have been killed since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011.
It began with anti-government protests but has since evolved into a complex multi-front war involving the army and rebel groups as well as the SDF and Daesh.
