U.S.-Backed Forces Begin Assault on Raqqa, ISIS Stronghold in Syria<br />Residents of Raqqa say that in recent weeks numerous Islamic State fighters<br />and their families have left the city, heading southeast along the Euphrates to the city of Mayadeen, in Deir al-Zour Province.<br />By ANNE BARNARDJUNE 6, 2017<br />BEIRUT, Lebanon — Forces backed by the United States said on Tuesday<br />that they had begun a long-anticipated offensive against Islamic State militants in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the group’s self-proclaimed capital.<br />The forces, collectively called the Syrian Democratic Forces<br />and made up of Syrian Kurdish fighters and Arab militias, have over the past month surrounded Raqqa from the east, north and west.<br />American and British forces there are training Syrian opposition fighters to battle the Islamic State,<br />and airstrikes were carried out under similar circumstances on May 18, officials said.<br />Pentagon officials insisted that the surge in tensions between the Saudi<br />and Qatari camps — both members of the anti-Islamic State coalition — would not affect operations against the militant group in Raqqa and Mosul, Iraq.
