Raqqa Battle: Syrian Kurdish-led forces besiege Euphrates Dam

RAQQA, Syria (Kurdistan24) – The Syrian Kurdish-led, US-backed forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) on Monday announced their troops besieged an IS-held strategic dam in the outskirts of the group’s stronghold of Raqqa.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) command reported they were fighting near the dam on the Euphrates River, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Raqqa city.

“The distance between our forces and the dam is less than one kilometer,” the SDF report said.

Backed by the US-led coalition air strikes, the SDF liberated dozens of villages and strategic areas last week and recently the town of Suwaydiya near the Euphrates dam.

Regarding the casualties, the SDF reported they killed 48 insurgents in Suwaydiya.

As the SDF fighters approach Raqqa, they said IS militants used several kinds of heavy weapons as well as car bombs and suicide bombers in an attempt to hide their losses.

Additionally, SDF fighters told Kurdistan24 the insurgents used tunnels to infiltrate the liberated areas.

Last week, the SDF released a report on the casualties and gains of their forces in the second phase of the operation launched against the extremists.

“A territory of 2,480 square kilometers – including 197 villages, tens of farmlands and strategical hills, and the historical Ja’bar Castle – was liberated,” the report revealed.

“[About] 260 [IS] terrorists had been killed, bodies of 115 seized on the fields of battle – 18 terrorist elements were captured alive,” the report continued.

On Nov. 5, 2016, the People’s Protection Units (YPG)-led SDF launched the first phase of the operation to drive IS from its de facto capital in Syria.

On Dec. 10, 2016, the SDF launched the second phase of the operation from the village of Qadiriya in northern Raqqa.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting by Kurdistan24 correspondent Redwan Bezar)