WEB DESK

US-backed fighters have entered Islamic State terror group held Raqa from the south for the first time, crossing the Euphrates River to enter a new part of the Syrian city.

syria-conflictSyrian Observatory for Human Rights said, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have spent months closing in on the IS group’s bastion Raqa and entered the city’s east and west last month. They entered Raqa’s south for the first time and seized the Al-Hal market. Some SDF fighters had advanced north across the Euphrates River, while others had attacked Al-Hal from the adjacent district of Al-Meshleb in Raqa’s east.

11 civilians, including four women and five children, were killed in coalition air strikes on the western Raqa district of Al-Daraiya yesterday. The new deaths put at more than 200 the civilian toll from coalition raids on Raqa since the US-backed SDF entered the city last month.

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