Some 2,000 Daesh terrorist group militants remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa amid an offensive to recapture the group’s stronghold, a senior US official said.<\/p>\n
Brett McGurk, special envoy for the coalition against Daesh, said US-backed forces have seized about 45 percent of Raqqa since the operation started in June, BBC reported.<\/p>\n
He said that the group is fighting for its own survival and that the militants are likely to die in the city.<\/p>\n
Daesh seized Raqqa in 2014, proclaiming it the capital of a \u2018caliphate\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been gradually advancing on the city since November, and launched an offensive to take it on 6 June.<\/p>\n
It is unclear how many civilians are still in Raqqa, but the United Nations estimates this number to be between 20,000 and 50,000.<\/p>\n
The loss of Raqqa would be another major setback for Daesh after the group was driven from its main Iraqi bastion of Mosul last month.<\/p>\n
The militants have lost 78 percent of the territory they held in Iraq and 58 percent of what they had in Syria, McGurk added.<\/p>\n
“Today in Raqqa, Daesh is fighting for every last block and fighting for their own survival,” he said, using another acronym for Daesh. “They most likely will die in Raqqa.”<\/p>\n
More than 300,000 people have lost their lives in six years of conflict in Syria, which began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad before escalating into a full-scale civil war. Eleven million people have been displaced by the fighting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some 2,000 Daesh terrorist group militants remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa amid an offensive to recapture the group’s stronghold, a senior US official said. Brett McGurk, special envoy for the coalition against Daesh, said US-backed forces have seized about 45 percent of Raqqa since the operation started in June, BBC reported. He said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[207,206,22,209,27,208],"yoast_head":"\n