U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Wednesday mourned Adanan Abu al-Majed, hHead of Manbij Militay Council, saying he had been killed in clakshes with ISIS in Raqqa city.
On the ground, fierce clashes are still underway in the neighborhoods of al-Morour, al-Bareed and al-Nahdha.
The SDF took strategic al-Mansour district on Monday, such a gain nears the collapse of the radical group's capital, local activists said.
Nowruz Ahmed, a top-ranking Kurdish commander, told Reuters that the battle to oust Islamic State from its stronghold should end within two months.
Ahmed who sits on the military council of the SDF said: “We cannot determine the time period in which the battle of Raqqa will end precisely because war has its conditions. But we do not expect it to last long, and according to our plans the battle will not take longer than two months from now,”
Islamic State has lost swathes of territory since 2015 in both Syria and Iraq, including the Iraqi city of Mosul. In Syria, under separate attacks from a U.S.-led coalition and from the Russian-backed Syrian army, it is falling back on its strongholds along the Euphrates valley east of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the caliphate it declared in 2014.
