The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

After about 100 days of the Grand Battle, the SDF controls more than 65% of the area of Raqqa and the number of causalities exceeds 1000 civilians

Syria Democratic Forces control 15 neighborhoods in the city

Raqqa province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:: violent clashes are still taking place between the SDF backed by the US Special Forces and the international coalition’s warplanes against members of ISIS in areas in the city of Raqqa, which used to be the stronghold of the organization and its capital in Syria, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the clashes were concentrated in the last hours in the neighborhood of al-Morur, which the SDF has completely controlled and thus they managed to expand their control in the city of Raqqa, to more than 65%, reducing the areas of control of the organization to 35% of the area of the city, while the SDF are still trying to achieve further advancement in the city and end the presence of the organization in it.

This advancement in al-Morur neighborhood are accompanied by violent clashes between both parties in areas in al-Thakanah neighborhood, which is considered the most important neighborhood in the city and is located in the center of the city of Raqqa, in conjunction with clashes in the outskirts of al-Amin neighborhood adjacent to Mansour neighborhood, while the clashes are accompanied by an exchange of targeting on the clash areas, and there is information about confirmed human losses in the ranks of both of them, and the clashes are continued in the neighborhoods of al-Bareed and al-Nahda and the northeastern part of the city, as a result of the repel attacks carried out by ISIS in an attempt to restore areas they lost and expand their areas of control inside the city, which used to be under its full control, before the beginning of the Grand Battle of Raqqa on the 6th of June 2017.

These violent clashes have been accompanied, during the past 24 hours, by continuous airstrikes by the International Coalition warplanes and the “Euphrates Wrath” Operations Forces on Al-Raqqa city, causing more causalities among civilians and leaving others injured with different severity, as well as destruction to the infrastructure, public and service facilities, and properties of citizens, rising to at least 1007 including an activist of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and 336  children and 166 women, the number of civilian martyrs documented by the SOHR in Raqqa city and its countryside since the 5th of June 2017 until the 11th of September 2017, and the casualties are 991 civilians including at least 233 children below the age of eighteen and 162 women over the age of eighteen, they were killed in Raqqa city. In addition, 16 civilians, including 3 children and 4 women, were killed in raids on Zor Shamar village and another area at the southern banks of the Euphrates River in the eastern countryside of Raqqa. The airstrikes also left hundreds of civilians injured with varied degrees of severity, some of whom had their limbs amputated and some suffered permanent disabilities and others are still in critical conditions, which indicate that the death toll is expected to rise. Moreover, dozens of houses and public utilities were destroyed as a result of the intensive shelling that targeted the city, its surroundings and outskirts.

The areas of control of ISIS have reduced but the organization still fully controls the neighborhoods of Andalos, north of the railways, Huriyah, Teshreen and Tawassoiya in the northern part of Raqqa city, while ISIS still controls with varying degrees other neighborhoods, where clashes between the SDF against ISIS are taking place, they are al-Bareed and al-Nahda in the western part of the city, and the neighborhoods of al-Amin and al-Thakanah in the center of the city of Raqqa, and al-Rawda and al-Rumaila northeast of Raqqa city, while the SDF controlled the neighborhoods of Sabahiya, Romaniya, Hutteen, Qadisiyah, Yarmouk, and al-Karim west of Raqqa city, the neighborhoods of Hisham Abdul Malik, Nazlat Shhada in the southern part of the city, and al-Sena’aa, al-Mashlab and the Old City and al-Batani in the eastern part of the city, and the neighborhoods of Dar’eiyah, Morur, and al-Mansour. The SDF also reached the outskirts of the neighborhoods of al-Amin and Thakanah and controlled parts of the neighborhoods of Rumila, Rawda, Bareed and al-Nahda.