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.



Weaponization of Food in Gaza Constitutes War Crime, UN Rights Office Says

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Weaponization of Food in Gaza Constitutes War Crime, UN Rights Office Says

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that the "weaponization" of food for civilians in Gaza constitutes a war crime, in its strongest remarks yet on a new model of aid distribution run by an Israeli-backed organization.

Over 410 people have been killed by gunshots or shells fired by the Israeli military while trying to reach distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began work in late May, UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters at a Geneva press briefing.

The death toll has been independently verified by his office, he added.

"Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food," he said, describing the system as "Israel's militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism".

"The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law."

Asked whether Israel was guilty of that war crime, he said: "The legal qualification needs to be made by a court of law."

Israel rejects war crimes charges in Gaza and blames Hamas fighters for harm to civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.