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US-backed forces in Syria say they now control so-called Islamic State’s one-time capital of Raqqa, with only a few dozen militants remaining in the city.

The Syrian Democratic Forces say they have retaken al-Naim square, where IS once held public executions.

The official declaration that the city has been recaptured is expected soon, a BBC correspondent reports.

Earlier, a convoy of local IS fighters and their families left Raqqa as part of a preplanned departure.

No foreign fighters were allowed to join them, the SDF says.

More than 3,000 civilians have escaped the city in recent days, local forces say.

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Raqqa was one of the first large cities IS took over in 2014, and had held control there for three years.

But the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, has been besieging the city for nearly four months.

• The desperate fight for IS ‘capital’ Raqqa
• Inside ‘Islamic State’: A Raqqa diary
• IS wives: Why I joined the ‘caliphate’ in Raqqa

On Monday, the SDF told the BBC that about 50 IS fighters remained around the city’s hospital and stadium.

The BBC gained access to Raqqa earlier on Monday, and for the first time in months there were no air strikes, shelling or gunfire, the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville reports.

Image Copyright @sommervilletv@SOMMERVILLETV

An SDF vehicle has been patrolling the ruined streets with a loudspeaker urging people to come out into the open and “eat hot soup”, our correspondent says.

The SDF’s earlier decision to allow some of the militants to go out of the city, leaving only a hardcore group of fighters behind, was designed to shorten the battle.

The loss of Raqqa will be seen as another blow for IS, which has been steadily losing ground in both Syria and Iraq over the last two years.

IS, which attracted fighters from across the globe with its extreme interpretation of Islamic law, used beheadings, crucifixions and torture to terrorise residents who opposed its rule.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41646802

The post Syria war: US-backed forces ‘control’ Raqqa first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

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A deal has been struck to evacuate civilians by bus from the Syrian city of Raqqa, where so-called Islamic State (IS) is surrounded by a US-led coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Under the agreement arranged by local officials, a convoy is due to leave on Saturday, a coalition spokesman said.

But foreign members of the IS jihadist group are apparently excluded.

Fighting is expected to continue for days before the former IS stronghold is fully liberated, the coalition added.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been besieging the city for nearly four months. They say about 100 IS fighters have surrendered in recent days.

The coalition was not involved in the evacuation deal but the SDF reserve the right to search people leaving the city, a statement said.

“The arrangement is designed to minimise civilian casualties and purportedly excludes foreign Daesh [IS] terrorists,” it noted.

The coalition said IS had been “hiding behind women and children for three years” and it was against any arrangement that allowed them to continue to do so

Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group that reports on the city, said on its Facebook page that dozens of buses had arrived there overnight, after travelling from further north.

Civilians have been making dangerous journeys of their own to leave the embattled city.

Raqqa became the de facto capital of the IS “caliphate” whose creation was proclaimed by IS three years ago, attracting thousands of jihadists from around the world.

Enforcing an extreme interpretation of Islamic law, the group used beheadings, crucifixions and torture to terrorise residents who opposed its rule.

• The desperate fight for IS ‘capital’ Raqqa
• Inside ‘Islamic State’: A Raqqa diary
• IS wives: Why I joined the ‘caliphate’ in Raqqa

Nouri Mahmoud, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia which is part of the SDF, told Reuters news agency: “The battles are continuing in Raqqa city.

“Daesh is on the verge of being finished. Today or tomorrow the city may be liberated.”

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41620009

The post Syria war: Raqqa deal agreed to evacuate civilians first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.