ISIS Appears to Lose Ground in Fight for Its Raqqa Base
Source: New York Times
The Islamic State appeared to suffer an important setback on Monday when American-backed militia fighters in Syria said they had seized the main route that connects Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital, to its territory in southeastern Deir al-Zour Province.
The development, if confirmed, essentially severed the last remaining access for supply deliveries to Raqqa and may have eliminated an escape route for Islamic State fighters.
Syrian government forces lost control of Raqqa in 2013 to the opposition, and the Islamic State captured the city later that year. Raqqa was the Islamic State’s most important territorial triumph at the time, and the extremist movement regards the city as the center of its self-proclaimed caliphate.
The seizure of the Raqqa exit route on Monday by the American-backed militia, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, was reported by its members and corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. The Syrian Observatory said the militia fighters were just five miles outside the Raqqa city limits.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/world/middleeast/isis-syria-raqqa-siege.html
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