US: Raqqa campaign will accelerate

The US-backed campaign to capture Raqqa, Daesh’s de-facto capital in Syria, will accelerate, the American envoy to the international coalition fighting the militants told reporters in Baghdad.

The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said yesterday that they had launched an operation to capture Raqqa, in an assault that overlaps with the final stages of the US-backed attack to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul.

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“So similar to Mosul,” Daesh’s capital in Iraq, “the Raqqa campaign is underway. These are critical elements in the ultimate defeat of Daesh but this will be a long term effort,” Brett McGurk said.

“They are down to their last neighbourhood in Mosul and they already lost part of Raqqa, and the Raqqa campaign from here will only accelerate.”