Raqqa

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday hailed the defeat of Islamic State fighters in their self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa as “a critical breakthrough” in a worldwide campaign against the militants. On Friday, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) formally announced Raqqa’s liberation from Islamic State after four months of battles and said the city would be part of a decentralized federal Syria. "Together, our forces have liberated the entire city from ISIS control," Trump said in a…

BAGHDAD: US-backed forces said Tuesday they had taken full control of Raqqa from the Islamic State group, defeating the last holdouts in the de facto Syrian capital of their now-shattered "caliphate". The Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, who have been fighting inside the northern city since they broke in on June 6, flushed the few hundred IS fighters left in the city from their last positions in the main hospital and the national stadium. "Everything is finished in Raqqa, our forces have taken full control of…

RAQQA: US-backed rebels said on Sunday they were launching an operation to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State. The attack ratchets up pressure on the militant group at a critical moment, with its fighters already battling an offensive by Iraqi security forces on their remaining Iraqi stronghold in the northern city of Mosul. The US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab armed groups, first announced on Sunday that a campaign to retake Raqqa would begin…

PARIS: The international coalition targeting Islamic State extremists should move on to take the group's headquarters in Raqqa in Syria once the battle in Mosul in Iraq has been won, a top US official said on Friday. Tens of thousands of troops and militiamen, backed by coalition air power and special forces, launched an assault on Mosul on Monday aimed at wresting back the last city in Iraq under the militant's control. French President Francois Hollande warned Thursday that IS fighters were leaving the city for Syria to…

WASHINGTON: The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State needs to take back the cities Mosul and Raqqa and will use "boots on the ground" as part of its strategy in doing so, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday.

Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the heart of Indonesia's capital on Thursday and the assault was claimed by Islamic state, the first time the radical group has targeted the world's most populous Muslim nation.

RAQQA: At least 32 Islamic State fighters were killed and 40 more wounded in Syria's Raqqa province on Sunday, in a series of air strikes believed to be carried out by a U.S.-led coalition targeting the jihadists, a monitoring group said.