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.



Tom Barrack: There Is One Syria

Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
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Tom Barrack: There Is One Syria

Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack described on Saturday the lifting of US sanctions on Syria as a “strategic fresh start” for the war-ravaged nation and said that the US was not intending to pursue “nation-building or federalism.”

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, quoted Barrack as telling the Arab News website, that the Trump administration’s removal of sanctions on May 13 was aimed at offering the Syrian people “a new slice of hope” following over a decade of civil war.

He described the Middle East as a “difficult zip code at an amazingly historic time.”

“President (Trump)’s message is peace and prosperity,” Barrack said, adding that “sanctions gave the people hope. That’s really all that happened at that moment.”

He noted that the US policy shift is intended to give the emerging Syrian regime a chance to rebuild.

The envoy clarified that the original US involvement in Syria was driven by counter-ISIS operations, and not aimed at regime change or humanitarian intervention.

He reaffirmed Washington’s position against a federal model for Syria, saying the country must remain unified with a single army and government.

“There’s not going to be six countries. There’s going to be one Syria,” he said, ruling out the possibility of separate autonomous regions.

Barrack added: “The US is not dictating terms but would not support a separatist outcome: We’re not going to be there forever as the babysitter.”

Last Wednesday, the Syrian government welcomed any path with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that would enhance the unity and territorial integrity of the country, reiterating its unwavering commitment to the principle of “One Syria, One Army, One Government,” and its categorical rejection of any form of partition or federalism.

Barrack confirmed that the US is closely monitoring the announcement that the first group of PKK fighters had destroyed their weapons in northern Iraq.

“This could be the first step towards long-term resolution of the Kurdish issue in Türkiye,” he said, but cautioned that questions remain about the SDF’s ongoing ties to the PKK leadership. “They (the SDF) have to decide: Are they Syrians? Are they Kurds first? That’s their issue.”

The envoy stressed that the current US strategy offers a narrow but real chance at stability.