ISIS update 5/13/2017....US backed forces announce plans to advance on ISIS capital Raqqa

High hopes ahead of Syria talks at UN

U.S.-backed forces in Syria announce plans to advance on ISIS capital

Syrian Democratic Forces announce Tabaqa region ISIL-free

 Kurdish-Led SDF Makes Fresh Advances against ISIL in Northeastern Syria

The predominately Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued their operation against ISIL and drove them out of more villages and regions near Raqqa city.

The SDF fighters engaged in clashes with ISIL and managed to take control over the villages of al-Rafeqeh and al-Ansar North of Raqqa.

The Kurdish forces further advanced against ISIL and pushed them back from the villages of Khirbet Khan, ISIL military training camp and a cotton spinning company in the same region, deploying forces only 4km away from Raqqa city.

Over 25 ISIL members were killed and a large volume of arms and ammunition were seized by the SDF in the clashes.

A commander said on Friday that the SDF would launch their final assault on the ISIL terrorists’ main bastion of Raqqa in early summer.

“The attack on Raqqa will take place in the beginning of the summer,” SDF Commander Rojda Felat told AFP without giving a more precise date.

He was speaking in al-Tabaqa city, which the SDF captured from ISIL on Wednesday along with its nearby dam.

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3 journalists injured covering major Syrian army advance on ISIS in Homs

Iraqi forces launch important operation near Syrian border

Authorities struggling to rebuild Mosul’s liberated territories

Iraqi Forces Recapture Major ISIL Haven in Western Mosul, Kill 2 Senior Leaders

Iraqi government forces took over a major district held by ISIL militants and killed two senior leaders as they advanced to liberate the Western side of Mosul.

The army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service recaptured Islah al-Zeraee district, an ISIL bastion in the Western side of the city, commander of the Nineveh Operations, Abdul-Amir Yarallah, said in a statement, IraqiNews reported.

Meanwhile, Federal Police chief Shaker Jawdat said in a separate statement that his forces retook al-Nour civil hospital as well as a school used by ISIL militants as a booby-trapping factory South of the strategic, ISIL-held Old City.

He added troops killed Abu Ali al-Basrawi, the group’s so-designated “legal official” for Mosul, Abu Youssef al-Masri, the so-called “sustenance official” and the latter’s aide, Radwan al-Maslawi.

According to Jawdat, three other suicide bombers were als killed near Bilal al-Habashi mosque in the Old City.

In the Northwestern axis of operations, which government forces began to move through last week, the forces continued to engage in fierce encounters at al-Ektisadiyeen district, another major neighborhood adjacent to the Old City.

Iraqi forces recaptured Eastern Mosul in January and generals said recently they became in control over nearly 90 percent of the Western region.Farsnews

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