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by Sylvie Lanteaume Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States is considering a stepped-up military presence in Africa to pursue Islamic State group jihadists looking for new havens after the fall of their “caliphate,” American officials say. After IS lost its de facto capital Raqa in Syria this month, and its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul earlier, the group “has aspirations to establish a larger presence” in Africa, the US military’s top officer General Joseph […]
by Maya Gebeily Agence France-Presse RAQA, Syria (AFP) – Tears streaming down her freckled face, 35-year-old Asya took in the shattered glass, gutted storefronts and crumbling cafes — all that remain of her favorite shopping street in Syria’s Raqa. “This was once the most beautiful city, my God,” said the woman in a mustard-coloured headscarf, gesturing out of the back seat of a car moving slowly down Raqa’s once-bustling Tal Abyad boulevard. “Now look around you. Look […]
by Maya Gebeily and Gihad Darwish Agence France Presse RAQA, Syria (AFP) — US-backed fighters battling to oust the Islamic State group from Syria’s Raqa were nearing the “final week” of their assault, the campaign’s commander told AFP on Sunday. The Syrian Democratic Forces have captured around 90 percent of IS’s one-time bastion and are closing in on the jihadists in a pocket of territory near Raqa city centre. Captured by IS in 2014, the […]
by Maya Gebeily Agence France-Presse “Don’t close your eyes. Stay awake!” the anti-jihadist Syrian fighter yelled at his injured comrade as a Humvee whisked them across the Islamic State group’s former stronghold Raqa. With the battle drawing closer to the city center, the distance to the nearest medical facilities is lengthening, making its increasingly difficult to keep injured fighters and civilians alive. The military vehicle carrying the wounded Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter whipped around […]
by Sara Hussein Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Syria’s army battled the Islamic State group on the edges of Deir Ezzor Monday, seeking to break the siege of a government enclave and oust the jihadists from a key stronghold. The jihadist group has already lost more than half of its nearby bastion of Raqa to attacking US-backed forces, and the loss of Deir Ezzor city and the surrounding oil-rich province would leave it […]
by Rouba El-Husseini Agence France-Presse RAQA, Syria – Heavy bombardment and fierce fighting shook the Islamic State group’s Syrian stronghold Raqa on Monday, as United States-backed forces said they captured a new neighborhood from entrenched jihadists. Bursts of gunfire and artillery as well as the thud of air strikes conducted by the US-led coalition filled the air in western neighborhoods of Raqa, on what AFP’s correspondent said was the heaviest day of bombardment to date. […]
by Layal Abou Rahal with Ahmad Mousa in Mosul Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — United States-backed forces have penetrated the heavily fortified heart of jihadist bastion Raqa for the first time, in a key milestone in the war against the Islamic State group in Syria. Air strikes by the US-led coalition battling IS punched two holes in the mediaeval wall surrounding the Old City of Raqa, allowing fighters of the Syrian Democratic […]
by Delil Souleiman Agence France-Presse RAQA, Syria (AFP) – Khalil al-Hussein fled the Islamic State group’s Syrian stronghold Raqa 18 months ago, but now he is back and fighting to help oust the jihadists from his hometown. The 25-year-old is one of several members of a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting IS who are originally from the northern city. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces began an operation to capture Raqa last year, and finally entered the city […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The Russian army on Friday said it had struck a meeting of Islamic State leaders in Syria on May 28 and was trying to verify whether the group’s leader had been killed, news agencies said on Friday. In a statement, the army said the attack took place near the IS stronghold of Raqa “which was also attended by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” the media reported, adding that the military was […]
by Sara Hussein Agence France-Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon – The battle to oust the Islamic State group from its stronghold of Raqa is creating daunting challenges for aid groups responding to the latest humanitarian crisis in the Syrian conflict. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Raqa and its surroundings since the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began its operation to capture the jihadist stronghold last year. But new waves of displacement are expected as the […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) — Intensified coalition air strikes supporting an assault by U.S.-backed forces on Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa in Syria are causing a “staggering loss of civilian life”, United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday (June 14). The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a U.S.-led coalition, began to attack Raqqa a week ago to take it from the jihadists. The SDF, supported by heavy […]
by Rana Moussaoui with Ayhem Al-Mohammad in Hasakeh Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The battle by United States-backed forces to oust the Islamic State group from its Syrian bastion of Raqa will solve one problem but create another: who will then govern the city? The Syrian Democratic Forces Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by Washington is leading the fight for majority-Arab Raqa. But the strategic city is also coveted by Bashar al-Assad’s government and its […]
