Daesh completely driven out of Raqqa in Syria

US-backed militias raised their flag inside Raqqa stadium on Tuesday as a four-month battle to take Daesh's Syrian de facto capital came to an end.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been supported by a US-led coalition with air strikes and special forces on the ground since they started the battle for Raqqa city in early June.

"Everything is finished in Raqqa. Our forces have taken full control," said SDF spokesman Talal Sello.

The alliance of YPG-dominated SDF and predominantly Arab militias was clearing the stadium of mines and any remaining hiding militants, said Rojda Felat, commander of the Raqqa campaign for the SDF.

"We do know there are still IEDs and booby traps in and amongst the areas that ISIS [Daesh] once held, so the SDF will continue to clear deliberately through areas," said Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the coalition.

In a sign that the four-month battle for Raqqa was in its last stages, Dillon said there were no coalition air strikes there on Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights corroborated the SDF announcement, saying Daesh was now completely cleared from the city.

Witnesses said militia fighters were celebrating in the streets, chanting slogans from their vehicles.

The breakthrough in the operation to retake Raqqa, which was launched on June 6, came after a deal was struck allowing the evacuation in recent days of civilians whom Daesh had been using as human shields.

Under the deal, 275 Syrian Daesh militants and their relatives surrendered to the SDF, though it was unclear whether they would be given safe passage elsewhere.

TRT World's Ahmed Al Burai reports from the Turkey-Syria border. 

The battle for the city was fierce, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor saying on Tuesday more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the fighting.

The Britain-based group put the overall death toll for the battle at 3,250, with 1,130 civilians among them, but said hundreds more were still missing.

Tens of thousands of civilians fled the fighting, some leaving ahead of the SDF's arrival, and others escaping towards the militia as they advanced in the city.

Fight to take last Daesh positions

The SDF displaced Daesh from the National Hospital in fighting overnight and early on Tuesday, alliance spokesman Mostafa Bali said.

"During these clashes, the National Hospital was liberated and cleared from the Daesh mercenaries, and 22 of these foreign mercenaries were killed there," said Bali.

An SDF field commander who gave his name as Ager Ozalp said three militiamen had been killed on Monday by mines that have become Daesh trademark in its urban battles.

Another field commander, who gave his name as Abjal al Syriani, said SDF fighters had found burned weapons and documents in the stadium.

The stadium and hospital were the last major positions held by Daesh after the departure of some of its fighters on Sunday, leaving only foreign militants to mount a last stand.

The final SDF assault began on Sunday after a group of Syrian militants quit Raqqa under a deal with tribal elders, leaving a hardcore of up to 300 fighters in the city.

Raqqa was the first big city Daesh captured in early 2014, before its rapid series of victories in Iraq and Syria brought millions of people under the rule of its self-declared caliphate, which passed laws and issued passports and money.

The SDF advance since Sunday also brought it control over a central city roundabout, where Daesh once displayed the severed heads of its enemies, and which became one of its last lines of defence as the battle progressed. 

Advance against Daesh in Deir Ezzor

Daesh is also losing ground elsewhere in Syria.

The regime army and allied forces pushed into the remaining Daesh-held districts of Deir Ezzor city in eastern Syria on Tuesday, a Hezbollah military media unit said.

Backed by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, the Syrian army has been fighting in the city since last month, after breaking a Daesh siege of an enclave there that had lasted three years.

Syrian troops and their allies made gains on Tuesday after "storming districts of Deir Ezzor city to clear them from [Daesh]," said the media unit run by Lebanon's Hezbollah, a key ally of Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said Daesh still controlled several neighbourhoods of the city.

Regime forces have been fighting to oust Daesh from the eastern oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, which borders Iraq. Deir Ezzor city sits on the western bank of the Euphrates river.

Daesh has lost swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq this year, and in Syria have been pushed into a strip of the Euphrates valley and surrounding desert.