The U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have breached the Old City of Raqqa in Syria, a first step in what is expected to be a difficult and long fight to wrest from the Islamic State the city it claims as a capital, CENTCOM announced late Monday.
The fighters, made up of Syrian Kurds and Arabs and supported by the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, had aimed to trap as many as 2,500 ISIS militants defending the Raqqa before entering the city, the New York Times reported.
Raqqa is the capital of ISIS’ caliphate.
CENTCOM reported the Syrian Democratic Forces advanced into the most heavily fortified portion of Raqqa by opening two small gaps in the Rafiqah Wall that surrounds the Old City.
ISIS fighters were using the wall as a fighting position and planted mines and improvised explosive devices at the breaks in the wall.
As they tried to breach the wall, the U.S-backed fighters were targeted with the improvised explosive devices and indirect gunfire as well as direct fire from heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and snipers.
A spokesman for the U.S. coalition claimed it is aiming to protect civilians during the advance into Raqqa.
“Coalition forces are making a great effort to protect civilians and preserve these sites for future generations,” said the spokesman, Col. Ryan Dillon, in a statement to the media.
“The most humane way to save the people of Raqqa is to swiftly and decisively defeat ISIS, who have terrorized the people of Raqqa for more than three years. Only this way, can the people of Raqqa be saved and city return to peace.”
As the Raqqa mission commences, U.S.-supported Iraqi forces are nearing the end of a more than eight-month effort to take back from ISIS the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Defeats of ISIS in these two cities would be a decisive blow to the terrorist group.
