Major Raqqa offensive starts in days after liberating town, dam

TABQA, Syria (Kurdistan24) – The Syrian Kurdish-Arab alliance forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) in Syria on Sunday announced the liberation of a strategic town and dam on the Euphrates, stating the major operation in Raqqa city will begin in days.  

In a statement published on social media, the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they liberated the IS-held town of al-Mansoura and the Ba’ath Dam in the western Raqqa countryside.

Al-Mansoura is located some 30 kilometers west of Raqqa, and the hydroelectric dam—which SDF renamed the Freedom Dam—lies some 22 kilometers upstream of Raqqa, IS’ base of operations in Syria.

“After three days of continuing clashes, our forces liberated the town and the dam in addition to the possession of a lot of weapons and ammunition,” the SDF reported.

The advance means the SDF now holds all three major dams along the Euphrates, after gaining control of Syria’s largest dam last month.

Regarding the operation in Raqqa city, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the SDF’s key component, stated the offensive would begin in a few days.  

The YPG spokesperson Nouri Mahmoud told Reuters, “The major operation will start in the coming few days.”

On the eastern countryside of Raqqa, the SDF reported last week they had liberated the villages of Hamrat Alnaser and Albalsam, about four kilometers east of the city.

On the north of Raqqa, the SDF said they advanced to within a few kilometers of the city.

In the south, SDF senior commands told Kurdistan24 there was no outlet for the insurgents to flee to Palmyra as Russian reports said.

The spokesperson of the US-backed, Kurdish-led operation room Jihan Sheikh Ahmad said the plan was to encircle IS from all sides, not to let them flee.

“Whether [IS] insurgents flee to Deir al-Zor in the east or Palmyra in the south, all is dangerous and threatens our security, so we plan to eradicate them after encircling them from all sides,” she said.

With the support of air strikes and Special Forces from the US-led coalition, the SDF have been surrounding Raqqa to free the city, which IS has used as a hub to plan attacks abroad.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting by Kurdistan24 correspondent Ekrem Saleh)