Syrian governmental troops target ISIS strongholds in Hama

Syrian citizen has been injured during the explosion of a land mine planted by ISIS extremist group on Wednesday in the northern countryside of Syrian city of Raqqa. Meanwhile, Syrian governmental troops bombarded two villages in the city of Hama targeting the strongholds of ISIS extremists, leading to a number of injuries.

U.S.-backed Syrian militias closed in on Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa on Wednesday, taking territory on the south bank of the Euphrates River with the aim of encircling the city, a militia spokesman said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which include Arab and Kurdish fighters and are supported with air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition, began an offensive two weeks ago to seize the northern city from Islamic State, which overran it in 2014.

Nouri Mahmoud, spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia which is part of the SDF, told Reuters Islamic State had been ousted from the suburb of Kasrat al-Farj as the SDF moved in along the southern riverbank from the west.

When the campaign began the SDF had Raqqa, which sits on the Euphrates’ northern bank, surrounded from the north, west and east. Although Islamic State controlled the south bank of the river, coalition air strikes had destroyed the bridges connecting it to the city. The SDF is now trying to enact a siege of the city by taking the southern bank. The forces are a couple of kilometers from achieving this aim.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Wednesday SDF forces had moved along the southern river bank to reach the eastern edge of Kasrat al-Farj, in the area between the new and old bridges into Raqqa. Islamic State is also facing defeat in its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul and is being forced into retreat across much of Syria, where Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria is its last major foothold.

U.S.-backed forces are closing in on Islamic State in Raqqa, but local Syrians who have escaped the battlefield are worried about what comes after the fight.

Dozens of them have volunteered to help rebuild the town once the militants have been defeated. The aim of organization they have joined, the Raqqa Civil Council (RCC) is to restore order and keep the peace in a place where further violence could fuel the rise of a new set of extremists with global ambitions.

The RCC was established in April by Kurdish and Arab allies of the U.S.-led coalition that began attacking Raqqa this month, to replace militant rule in a part of Syria long beyond President Bashar al-Assad’s control. The campaign against Islamic State has accelerated since President Donald Trump took office in January with the militants now facing defeat in both Raqqa and Mosul in Iraq.

But the RCC says post-conflict planning in Raqqa has not kept pace. RCC volunteers say they have told the coalition it will take 5.3 billion Syrian lira (about $10 million) a year to restore power and water supplies, roads and schools and that they have nothing but small private donations so far.

The dangers of the failure to rebuild after conflict were clear in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The post-conflict chaos opened the door to an insurgency that devastated the country and fueled the rise of Islamic State.

Mosul and Raqqa are both key centers of the caliphate the group proclaimed in 2014, but Raqqa is its operational headquarters, from where it plotted many of the deadly attacks that have targeted civilians around the world. A U.S. official said Washington stood ready to fund the RCC, “provided they prove themselves inclusive and representative of the communities they govern”.

More than 20 members of the Syrian regime forces were either killed or wounded during to their violent attack on Jobar neighborhood in the Syrian Capital, Damascus.

Qasioun News reported, on Wednesday, that the Syrian regime forces launched an offensive on Jobar neighborhood, northeast of Damascus, where violent clashes took place between the government forces and Syrian rebels, amid mutual artillery and rockets shelling.

Furthermore, over 20 members of the regime forces had been either killed or wounded in the clashes that broke out in Jobar neighborhood between the two sides.

Meanwhile, warplanes carried out more than seven air strikes on the neighborhood, resulting significant damage to the area, but no casualties were reported, while several mortar shells fell on the regime-held neighborhoods of Damascus, causing only material damage.

It is noteworthy, Syrian government forces and their affiliated militias are trying to advance into Jobar neighborhood since Monday, however, all their attempts failed.