SDF captures 90 percent of Raqqa city after Daesh pullback, says monitor

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured 90 percent of the Syrian city of Raqqa from Daesh after overrunning five strategic neighbourhoods, a war monitor said on Wednesday. 

"Because of the heavy (US-led) coalition air strikes, Daesh withdrew from at least five key neighbourhoods over the past 48 hours," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

"This allowed the Syrian Democratic Forces to control 90 percent of the city." 

Daesh has pulled out of the north of the city and abandoned its grain silos and mills.

"IS (Daesh) is now confined to the city centre," Abdel Rahman said.

In a statement, the SDF said it had opened a new front against Daesh on the northern edge of Raqqa, describing this as "a feature of the final stages of the Euphrates Wrath campaign, which is nearing its end."

SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militants, is led by the YPG, The YPG is considered by Turkey as an offshoot of the PKK, which has been designated as a terrorist group by Ankara, the EU and the US.

The PKK has been waging an armed campaign against Turkey since 1984. 

Self-declared caliphate shrinks further

Daesh seized Raqqa in early 2014, transforming the city into the de facto Syrian capital of its self-declared caliphate.

It quickly became synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities, including public beheadings.

Backed by US-led coalition air strikes, the SDF spent months encircling the city before entering it in early June.  

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting in recent months. Estimates of the number still inside the city range from fewer than 10,000 to as many as 25,000.