“Syrian Democratic Forces have completely liberated the vicinities of al-Mustafa mosque in the heart of the Nadhla Shahada south of the city after repelling car bomb attacks of mercenaries," announced Cihan Sheikh Ahmed, spokesperson for the SDF's Wrath of the Euphrates Campaign, referencing ISIS militants as mercenaries.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported four SDF fighters were killed on Wednesday, increasing the number of fighters killed in the previous 24 hours to 14.
The Syriac Military Council, a Christian force within SDF, posted video claiming to show Apache helicopters from the US-led global coalition striking suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (SVBIEDs).
Ahmed added that early on Thursday morning SDF fighters destroyed another ISIS car bomb in the center of Nadhla neighborhood as they advance to liberate more parts of the city.
Another of the impediments facing the liberating forces is homemade bombs, which the Raqqa Campaign published video of after discovering an apparent ISIS weapons factory in Al-Mashlab. The improvised explosive devices appear to be recycled bomb parts, grenades and rockets.
There had been reports last week of the Raqqa offensive slowing or stalling.
"The SDF has made steady progress. They have hit some resistance over the course of the past two weeks as they move into the city center," the spokesperson for the coalition, US Army Col. Ryan Dillon, told Rudaw last week.
He explained that only 2 kilometers separate the eastern and western SDF advancing front lines and Raqqa city is “about 25 percent cleared.”
The 50,000-strong SDF is comprised of various local fighters, including about 25,000 Kurds with allegiances to the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The coalition confirmed the SDF had completed a siege of Raqqa on all four axes in late June.
The offensive to retake ISIS’s so-claimed capital of Raqqa city began on June 3.
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