Renewed clashes in the Old City and other areas in the city of Al-Raqqah
Al-Raqqah Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: The clashes are still taking place between the members of the “Islamic State” organization on one hand, and the fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces and the US Special Forces on the other, in areas in the city of Al-Raqqah, where the clashes are concentrated in the areas of contact north of Nazlat Shhada and Hisham ibn Abd Al-Malik neighborhoods, and in areas in the Old City, amid exchange of shelling between both parties, while the warplane of the International Coalition carried out strikes targeted areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization, and no information about casualties.
And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published yesterday that warplanes of the International Coalition targeted by more air strikes, areas under the control of the “Islamic State” organization in the city of Al-Raqqah, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that these strikes resulted in the death of 7 citizens at least including a man and 4 members at least of his family including a child and a citizen woman, thus, the number of casualties who were killed and documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights increase since the afternoon of Monday the 14th of August 2017, as the number of civilian casualties reaches 90 casualties including 30 children under the age of 18 and 17 citizen women over the age of 18, while the number of casualties may increase because of the presence of injuries in serious cases, and the presence of missing people are not known whether they were killed or are still alive.
And the renewed shelling by the International Coalition accompanied by shelling by the forces of “The Euphrates Shield” Operation, and violent clashes between the Syria Democratic Forces supported by the US Special Forces on one hand, and the members of the “Islamic State” organization on the other, in areas the city and the vicinity of the center of the city, amid counter attacks by the organization and its exploding of booby trapped vehicles or explosive belts from time to time or targeting the positions of the attacking forces, and information about confirmed casualties as a result of these clashes, also these massacres are accompanied by the lack of a lot of food items and significant decrease in others. Reliable sources confirmed the absence of vegetables and fruits in the city market in addition to the significant shortage in medicines and drinking water and their surging prices. Thus, the civilians still residing in Al-Raqqah depend mainly on grains, rice and legumes which have been stored by the city citizens or the shops.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also published on Thursday that hundreds of civilians managed to flee through the past 48 hours from areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization in Al-Raqqah city, and reached areas controlled by the Syria Democratic Forces in the city and its outskirts and surroundings.