Raqa News

Russia on Sunday accused the US-led coalition in Syria of having flattened Raqa with a Dresden-like bombing campaign and masking the destruction with a rush of humanitarian aid.

On October 17, SDF spokesman Talal Sello told AFP the US-backed fighters finally had "taken full control of Raqa" from IS.

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 said today.

 "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.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, is battling to oust IS from their onetime stronghold of Raqa.

he misses his girlfriend.

US-backed fighters on Friday ousted the Islamic State group from Raqa`s Old City, a spokesman told AFP, bringing them closer than ever to the jihadists` most well-defended positions.

The Syria army operation in the area, backed by air support from ally Russia, is separate from the battle for provincial capital Raqa city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the jihadist group had recaptured large swathes of territory from government forces in the fighting on Thursday.

At least 42 civilians were killed on Monday in a barrage of US-led air strikes on Islamic State group territory in the Syrian city of Raqa, a monitor said.

US-led coalition strikes on Sunday killed 27 civilians in part of Syria's Raqa city held by the Islamic State group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Turkish authorities have placed under arrest a British citizen on charges of links to a Kurdish militia Ankara deems to be a terror group, after detaining him in a raid at a holiday resort, state media said.

The Syrian army has reached the last jihadist-held town on the road to its besieged garrison in the east, a monitoring group said on Friday.

At least 30 civilians were killed today in separate bombing raids by the US-led coalition and pro-regime warplanes on jihadist-held territory in Syria, a monitor said.

Since IS captured Raqa in early 2014, it has served as the de facto capital of the jihadist group`s Syrian territory.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 civilians remain in Raqa, with the jihadists accused of using them as human shields.

Islamic State group jihadists recaptured an eastern district of their Syrian bastion Raqa on Friday, a monitor said, rolling back the advance of US-backed fighters. 

But IS fighters hit back with a counterattack that included several suicide bombings against the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters trying to seize control of the city.

An American fighter jet has for the first time downed a Syrian warplane that Washington accused of attacking US-backed fighters, in a new escalation between the United States and regime forces.