US-backed forces seize Raqqa's Old City from Daesh

WASHINGTON - 5 September 2017: US-backed forces in Syria have captured the Old City of Raqqa, the latest milestone in their ongoing assault against Daesh, according to a US military statement on Monday.

Kurdish and Arab fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces secured the neighborhood over the weekend after vanquishing a last pocket of resistance in the city's historic Great Mosque, The Washington Post quoted the statement as saying.

The capture followed a grinding two-month battle for the neighborhood that has proved the toughest challenge yet of a three-month-old offensive for Raqqa, launched in June and still far from over.

Unlike the Old City in Mosul, the one in Raqqa does not lie at the heart of the city and its seizure does not signify an imminent end to the fighting, said US military spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon.

The SDF now controls about 60 percent of Raqqa, said Dillon, who would not put a timeline on how long it would take to claim the rest but predicted that weeks of fighting lie ahead.