Syrian army advances against Daesh in Raqqah: Report

Syrian government forces and their allies have advanced against Daesh Takfiri terrorists in the countryside east of Raqqah City, a monitoring group says.

On Thursday, the Syrian forces advanced four kilometers (2.5 miles) within the town of Maadan and crossed the provincial boundary between Raqqah Province, the de facto capital of the Daesh terrorist group in Syria, and Dayr al-Zawr Province, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian forces are now getting closer to the territory controlled by US-backed forces fighting against Daesh in Raqqa City, the report said.

On Thursday, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed group of mostly Kurdish forces, announced that it has wrested control over half of the Syrian city of Raqqah. The SDF launched its assault on Raqqah on June 6.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris’ administrative and control tasks the next year.

Over the past few months, Syrian forces have made sweeping gains against Takfiri elements, which have lately increased their acts of violence across the country following a series of defeats on the ground.