Raqqa campaign will accelerate, U.S. envoy says

(Reuters) The U.S.-backed campaign to capture Raqqa, Islamic State’s de-facto capital in Syria, will accelerate, the U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting the militants told reporters in Baghdad.
The U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Tuesday it had launched an operation to capture Raqqa, in an assault that overlaps with the final stages of the U.S.-backed attack to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul.

“So similar to Mosul,” Islamic State’s capital in Iraq, “the Raqqa campaign is underway. These are critical elements in the ultimate defeat of Daesh but this will be a long term effort,” Brett McGurk said, referring to Islamic State.

“They are down to their last neighbourhood in Mosul and they already lost part of Raqqa, and the Raqqa campaign from here will only accelerate.”

In the past week the SDF has advanced to within a few kilometers of the city’s edge, after gradually encircling Raqqa since November in a multi-phased campaign to drive Islamic State from the city where it has planned attacks on the West.

The assault on Raqqa will pile more pressure on Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate with the group facing defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and being forced into retreat across much of Syria, where Deir al-Zor is its last major foothold.