The SDF achieve new advancement and control about 90% of the Old City in Al-Raqqah approaching a new area towards the center of the city

Al-Raqqah Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the city of Al-Raqqah which was the stronghold of the “Islamic State” organization in Syria, is witnessing continuous violent clashes between the Syria Democratic Forces supported by the US Special Forces on one hand and members of ISIS on the other, in areas concentrated in the Old City and the vicinity of the center of Al-Raqqah city, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the SDF managed to achieve important advancement, and control the eastern section of Al-Mansour neighborhood which is located in the city center, this advancement allowed these forces to increase the size of their controlled areas in Al-Raqqah city generally and in the Old City specifically, where the SDF managed to control about 90% of the area of the Old City, and remained about 10% of the area of the Old City for these forces in order to take the full control of it, and the clashes are accompanied by intensive violent shelling by the forces of “Euphrates Wrath” Operation on the areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization in the city, in which reliable sources confirmed to SOHR that Al-Thaknah neighborhood is considered the most important neighborhood in the city, where there are the governmental buildings which ISIS took previously as its headquarters in the city, also thousands of the remaining citizens in the city of who remained there and couldn’t get out of it till now, gather in this neighborhood.

In the same context the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the warplanes of the International Coalition, targeted areas in Al-Raqqah city, near Al-Hadiqah Al-Baidaa area in the vicinity of the center of Al-Raqqah city, which resulted in the death and the injury of dozens of people, where it was confirmed that at least 8 of them were killed, while the number of casualties may increase because of the presence of injuries in serious cases, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published hours ago that Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the death of at least 10 citizens of one family, they are 6 males and 4 females who have displaced earlier from Palmyra city in the eastern countryside of Homs, they were killed in bombing by warplanes of the International Coalition on areas in Al-Raqqah city during the past 24 hours, and the death toll is expected to rise because there are some people in critical situation, and due to the presence of missing persons, which raise to 816 at least, including an activist at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 204 children and 131 citizen women, the number of civilian persons who were killed and documented by the Syrian Observatory in Al-Raqqah city and its countryside from the 5th of June 2017 to the 28th of August 2017, and the casualties are 800 civilians including at least 201 children under the age of eighteen and 127 woman over the age of eighteen, they were killed in al-Raqqa city, in addition to 16 civilians including 3 children and 4 women who were killed in airstrikes in the village of Zur Shamar and another area at the southern banks of the Euphrates River in the eastern countryside of al-Raqqa. The aerial shelling left hundreds of the people injured of different severity, some of them had amputations and permanent disabilities, while some of them are still in serious conditions, which may increase the death toll, and dozens of houses and public facilities in the town have been destroyed, as a result of this intensive shelling, which targeted the city of al-Raqqa, its vicinity and its outskirts, while the SOHR received information about the presence of more civilians causalities which the SOHR couldn’t document.