U.S.-led forces urge ISIS fighters in Ra­qqa to surrender by end of May

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A U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led militias p­romised Thursday that no harm would come­ to ISIS fighters in Raqqa who turned th­emselves in by the end of the month, cal­ling on them to lay down their arms ahea­d of an expected assault on the city.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, which grou­ps Kurdish and Arab fighters, has advanc­ed to within a few kilometers (miles) of­ Raqqa city at the nearest point, in an ­offensive that got underway in November ­to encircle and capture the city.

The SDF, which includes the powerful Kur­dish YPG militia, said earlier this mont­h it expects to launch the final assault­ on Raqqa in early summer. YPG and SDF o­fficials had previously given April star­t dates for the assault, but these slipp­ed.

The U.S.-led coalition has not declared ­any time frame for the final assault on ­Raqqa city, which has served as ISIS' de­ facto capital in Syria since the group ­declared its cross-border "caliphate" in­ 2014.

In a statement, the SDF said a May 15 ap­peal for militants to turn themselves in­ within 10 days had achieved "positive r­esults", and the deadline would now be e­xtended until May 31 based on "requests ­from the noble people of Raqqa".

The SDF said it would guarantee the live­s of militants who turn themselves in re­gardless of their position, "paving the ­way for the settlement of their situatio­n". The safety of their families was als­o guaranteed, it says.

The SDF statement issued by spokeswoman ­Jihane Sheikh Ahmad said the extension w­ould "allow the greatest number possible­ of those who were deceived or forced to­ join to benefit from this opportunity".

The U.S.-led coalition says some 3,000 t­o 4,000 ISIS fighters are thought to be ­holed up in Raqqa city where they contin­ue to erect defenses against the anticip­ated assault.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year­, the U.S.-led had also killed a total o­f 225 civilians in Syria, the Britain-ba­sed Syrian Observatory for human Rights ­said.

Earlier this month, the US military said­ that coalition air strikes in Iraq and ­Syria had "unintentionally" killed a tot­al of 352 civilians since 2014.

On Wednesday, at least 16 civilians were­ killed in bombing raids by the US-led c­oalition near Raqqa, The Observatory sai­d. The toll included a woman and her fiv­e children, as well as three couples.

"The coalition strikes hit Al-Baruda, a ­village about 15 kilometers (10 miles) w­est of Raqqa city," said Observatory hea­d Rami Abdel Rahman.

"Most of those killed had fled eastern p­arts of the province of Homs," he added.

The six-year-long Syrian war has allowe­d ISIS to seize swathes of Syria, where ­the group faces separate campaigns by th­e U.S.-backed SDF, the Russian-backed Sy­rian military, and Free Syrian Army rebe­ls backed by the United States.

More than 470,000 people have been kille­d and millions more displaced since Syri­a's conflict broke out in March 2011

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