BEIRUT: US-backed fighters inched forwards in Raqa’s Old City against fierce resistance Wednesday, after penetrating the heart of the Islamic State group’s Syrian bastion, a spokesman and a monitor said. “The SDF advanced and captured the strategic Saif al-Dawlah road leading towards the Old Mosque,” Nuri Al-Mahmoud told Agence France-Presse. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had pushed forwards about 200 meters (yards) by midday (0900 GMT) on Wednesday. “They are now approximately 300 meters (yards) from the Old Mosque—within firing range of it,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. The US envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, hailed the SDF’s entry into the Old City as a “key milestone” in the campaign to defeat IS in its de facto Syrian capital.

Source: Manila Times July 05, 2017 11:37 UTC