DAMASCUS, SYRIA – ISIS is unlikely to keep control of Tabqa city for long as the US-backed ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) resumed their western Raqqa offensive today, spearheaded by hundreds of seasoned Kurdish assault units.
With the SDF sweeping through the city center, their forces were able to imposed full control over the Nebabile and Zahra neighborhoods.
Three days ago, Kurdish forces also captured the Al-Wahab district after establishing a foothold in the Alexandria suburb on April 15.
According to a Kurdish outlet, 23 ISIS members were killed amid the urban advance on Friday afternoon while 7 jihadist corpses were taken into SDF possession. The SDF did not take any prisoners according to the SDF-linked newspaper.
The advance also saw an ISIS tunnel and prison captured; the latter held 15 cells:
With four neighborhoods officially under Kurdish control, ISIS clings on to control of less than half of Tabqa city, located just south of Lake Assad.
Over the past 24 hours, over a dozen anti-ISIS sorties were conducted by the United States Air Force in support of the advance.
Nevertheless, the southern portion of the adjacent Tabqa Dam is still under Islamic State control as jihadists are yet to be dislodged from the area.
