SDF Says Syria’s Raqqa Campaign in Final Stages

Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces walk through an area seized from ISIS in western Raqqa on June 11, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP
Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces walk through an area seized from ISIS in western Raqqa on June 11, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP
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SDF Says Syria’s Raqqa Campaign in Final Stages

Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces walk through an area seized from ISIS in western Raqqa on June 11, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP
Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces walk through an area seized from ISIS in western Raqqa on June 11, 2017. Delil Souleiman / AFP

Fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have captured most of Raqqa from ISIS, saying the campaign to put the Syrian city under SDF control was in its final stages.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF overran five strategic neighborhoods in Raqqa.

"Because of the heavy (US-led) coalition air strikes, ISIS withdrew from at least five key neighborhoods over the past 48 hours," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

"This allowed the Syrian Democratic Forces to control 90 percent of the city." 

The terrorist organization has pulled out of the north of the city and abandoned its grain silos and mills.

But the SDF said its fighters had seized only 80 percent of Raqqa city.

In a statement, the SDF said it had opened a new front against ISIS on the northern edge of Raqqa, describing this as "a feature of the final stages of the Euphrates Wrath campaign, which is nearing its end".

"ISIS is now confined to the city center," Abdel Rahman said.

"The difficulty in advancing and fully clearing these neighborhoods is linked to the mines that ISIS has left behind."

The extremist group seized Raqqa in early 2014, transforming the city into the de facto Syrian capital of its self-declared “caliphate.”

It quickly became synonymous with the terrorist organization's most gruesome atrocities, including public beheadings.

Backed by US-led coalition air strikes, the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, spent months encircling the city before entering it in early June.  

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting in recent months. Estimates of the number still inside the city range from fewer than 10,000 to as many as 25,000.



France Says it Obtains Palestinian Reform Pledge ahead of Conference

France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he speaks during the presentation of the European Ocean Pact during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), which gathers leaders, researchers and activists to discuss how to protect marine life, in Nice, France, June 9, 2025. Laurent Cipriani/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo
France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he speaks during the presentation of the European Ocean Pact during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), which gathers leaders, researchers and activists to discuss how to protect marine life, in Nice, France, June 9, 2025. Laurent Cipriani/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo
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France Says it Obtains Palestinian Reform Pledge ahead of Conference

France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he speaks during the presentation of the European Ocean Pact during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), which gathers leaders, researchers and activists to discuss how to protect marine life, in Nice, France, June 9, 2025. Laurent Cipriani/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo
France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he speaks during the presentation of the European Ocean Pact during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), which gathers leaders, researchers and activists to discuss how to protect marine life, in Nice, France, June 9, 2025. Laurent Cipriani/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo

France said on Tuesday it had obtained new commitments from the Palestinian Authority to reform, ahead of a conference next week at which Paris could become the most prominent Western power to back recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

President Emmanuel Macron has received a letter from Mahmoud Abbas in which the Palestinian president condemns the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack against Israel, calls on all hostages to be released and pledges further reforms, the Elysee said, Reuters reported.

Abbas, 89, has headed the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004.

The letter to Macron, who is working on organizing an international conference with Saudi Arabia to discuss recognition of Palestine, contains "unprecedented" pledges, Macron's office said, without elaborating.

"Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces, which will oversee their removal outside the Occupied Palestinian territory, with Arab and international support," the French leader's office quoted Abbas as having written in the letter.

Israel has said it will not accept any role for the PA in Gaza after the war and has denounced countries that consider recognizing Palestinian independence, which it says would reward Hamas for its attacks.

French officials have said Macron is leaning towards recognizing a Palestinian state ahead of the UN conference which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting from June 17-20.