(Zaman Al Wasl)- US-backed Kurdish forces took new ground from ISIS in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor, the last main road out of the city which is bordered to the south by the Euphrates River, spokesman said Friday.
The SDF captured the district of al-Jazrat, making significant close to the eastern bank of Euphrates river.
meanwhile people of al-Jazrat have fled their villages, fearing the US and Russia's airstrikes that killed about 40 people in support of SDF in al-Mayadin, key city in Deir Ezzor province.
The US-led coalition airstrikes killed 23 civilians, including eight children, in the countryside north of Raqqa on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor said. The coalition said it was investigating the incident.
The US formed and backed alliance said on Thursday they were closing in on Islamic State-held Raqqa and expected to reach the city outskirts in a few weeks, as a U.S. Marines artillery unit deployed to help the campaign.
This week, the SDF cut the road between Raqqa and the jihadists' stronghold of Deir Ezzor province.
The SDF, a militia alliance including the Kurdish YPG, is the main U.S. partner in the war against Islamic State in Syria. Since November it has been working with the U.S.-led coalition to encircle Raqqa.
SDF spokesman Talal Silo said: "We expect that within a few weeks there will be a siege of the city."
Coalition spokesman U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian said the additional U.S. forces would be working with local partners in Syria - the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian Arab Coalition - and would not have a front line role.
Some 500 U.S. personnel are already in Syria to help the fight against IS. A 400-strong additional deployment which arrived in recent days comprised both Marines and Army Rangers, Dorrian said, adding they were there temporarily.
Islamic State is also being fought in Syria by the Russian-backed Syrian military, and by Syrian rebel groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner with Turkish backing in northern Syria and Jordanian backing in southern Syria.
On the other major flank of the assault on IS, Iraqi forces aim to dislodge the militant group from west Mosul within a month.
Dorrian said the effort to isolate Raqqa was "going very very well" and could be completed in a few weeks. "Then the decision to move in can be made," he told Reuters by telephone.
The artillery will help "expedite the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa", he said, using another acronym for Islamic State. The Marines were armed with 155-millimetre artillery guns. Asked if they had been used yet, Dorrian said he did not believe so.
"We have had what I would describe as a pretty relentless air campaign to destroy enemy capabilities and to kill enemy fighters in that area already. That is something that we are going to continue and intensify with this new capability."
A Kurdish military source told Reuters that further U.S. reinforcements were expected to arrive in the coming days.
The SDF captured the district of al-Jazrat, making significant close to the eastern bank of Euphrates river.
meanwhile people of al-Jazrat have fled their villages, fearing the US and Russia's airstrikes that killed about 40 people in support of SDF in al-Mayadin, key city in Deir Ezzor province.
The US-led coalition airstrikes killed 23 civilians, including eight children, in the countryside north of Raqqa on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor said. The coalition said it was investigating the incident.
The US formed and backed alliance said on Thursday they were closing in on Islamic State-held Raqqa and expected to reach the city outskirts in a few weeks, as a U.S. Marines artillery unit deployed to help the campaign.
This week, the SDF cut the road between Raqqa and the jihadists' stronghold of Deir Ezzor province.
The SDF, a militia alliance including the Kurdish YPG, is the main U.S. partner in the war against Islamic State in Syria. Since November it has been working with the U.S.-led coalition to encircle Raqqa.
SDF spokesman Talal Silo said: "We expect that within a few weeks there will be a siege of the city."
Coalition spokesman U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian said the additional U.S. forces would be working with local partners in Syria - the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian Arab Coalition - and would not have a front line role.
Some 500 U.S. personnel are already in Syria to help the fight against IS. A 400-strong additional deployment which arrived in recent days comprised both Marines and Army Rangers, Dorrian said, adding they were there temporarily.
Islamic State is also being fought in Syria by the Russian-backed Syrian military, and by Syrian rebel groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner with Turkish backing in northern Syria and Jordanian backing in southern Syria.
On the other major flank of the assault on IS, Iraqi forces aim to dislodge the militant group from west Mosul within a month.
Dorrian said the effort to isolate Raqqa was "going very very well" and could be completed in a few weeks. "Then the decision to move in can be made," he told Reuters by telephone.
The artillery will help "expedite the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa", he said, using another acronym for Islamic State. The Marines were armed with 155-millimetre artillery guns. Asked if they had been used yet, Dorrian said he did not believe so.
"We have had what I would describe as a pretty relentless air campaign to destroy enemy capabilities and to kill enemy fighters in that area already. That is something that we are going to continue and intensify with this new capability."
A Kurdish military source told Reuters that further U.S. reinforcements were expected to arrive in the coming days.
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