US-backed SDF: Battle for IS capital begins ‘within days’

BEIRUT — The battle for control of the Islamic State group’s de facto capital Raqqa, in northern Syria, will begin “within days,” a spokeswoman for a U.S.-backed Syrian force at the city’s edges said Saturday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are already encamped around the city’s northern and eastern divisions and on Saturday made new progress against IS militants to approach the city from the south bank of the Euphrates River. Raqqa lies on the northern side of the river.

Spokeswoman Cihan Sheikh Ehmed said the SDF, which enjoys the backing of the U.S. military, would launch the battle for Raqqa “very soon.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF has been engaged in fierce fighting with IS militants along the southern bank of the Euphrates River, around Mansoura, approximately 16 miles southwest of Raqqa. The SDF said they were in control of 90 percent of the town on Saturday.

Raqqa’s size poses a new challenge for the SDF, who have captured smaller towns and strongholds from the IS group in northern Syria. As of March, there were an estimated 300,000 people inside Raqqa. Activists reported the militants were forcing them to stay and using them as human shields.

Raqqa is the largest city to have fallen under the complete control of the IS group in Syria, after militants seized it from rebels in January 2014. The city’s capture heralded nearly two years of dizzying expansion for the group across northern Syria and Iraq, and it formally split with al-Qaida’s central leadership in February that year.

Shortly after, its leader declared a “caliphate” over the areas under IS control, which stretched to include Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. That designation is not recognized by other Muslims.

The Islamic State group is also struggling to defend Mosul, the largest city it once held in neighboring Iraq.