THE Syrian city of Raqqa has been liberated from Daesh militants, a senior commander for a US-backed force has said.
Clearing operations were under way to remove land mines left behind and search for the extremist group’s sleeper cells, Brigadier General Talal Sillo added.
Sillo said yesterday there are no longer clashes in the city, which had served as the extremist group’s headquarters and self-proclaimed capital of their so-called caliphate for more than three years.
A formal declaration will be made from the city soon, after the clearing operations end.
Raqqa is still full of land mines, Sillo added, but fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are now in control of the former “capital of terrorism”.
On Monday, the head of a police force affiliated with the SDF, was killed in a land mine explosion in the city, he said.
Losing Raqqa is a huge blow for Daesh, which has steadily lost territory in Iraq and Syria, including Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul a few months ago.
The group declared the city on the banks of the Euphrates River, which it seized from other Syrian rebels in early 2014, to be the capital of its self-styled caliphate, transforming the once vibrant metropolis into the epicentre of its brutal rule where opponents were beheaded and terror plots were planned.
Dozens of militants who refused to surrender had made their last stand in the city’s stadium, which had become notorious as a prison and dungeons for the group.
After Sillo’s statement, it was not immediately clear if the Daesh militants were still inside the stadium.
Also earlier, Musafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, said 22 Daesh militants were killed in an advance on the hospital.
On Monday, the Kurdish-led SDF captured Paradise Square, Raqqa’s public square where Daesh militants used to perform killings and beheadings, forcing residents to watch after summoning them with loudspeakers.
Bodies and severed heads would linger there for days, mounted on posts.
The battle for Raqqa began in June.
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