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Executive Summary for June 6th

We review the key events in Syria, including the imminent launch of an anticipated offensive on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, claims that rebels downed a military plane near Damascus, and reports that coalition airstrikes killed 21 people on the banks of the Euphrates.

Published on June 6, 2017 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Raqqa Offensive to Start Within Hours

A U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led force will officially announce the beginning of its assault on the former de-facto capital of the so-called Islamic State on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

An official from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told AP on Monday night that the announcement would be made “within hours.”

In a statement carried by Reuters, the SDF said that it will announce “the start of the fifth stage of the campaign to liberate Raqqa which will include an assault on the city.”

Ibrahim Ibrahim, head of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party’s media center in Europe, told Reuters that as part of the campaign “the [SDF] will enter the city and begin attacking Raqqa directly.”

Earlier this week, the Kurdish-led force, which has been advancing on the ISIS stronghold in Raqqa since November, said they captured the Baath Dam, which lies 14 miles (22km) upstream of the militants’ former de-facto capital.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the SDF has been repairing bridges across the Euphrates River in preparation for the attack on Raqqa.

Rebels Down Government Warplane

Syrian rebel groups downed a government warplane 31 miles (50km) east of the capital Damascus on Monday, Reuters reported, citing opposition activists.

“We have brought down a Syrian jet in Tel Dakwa area in rural Damascus and we are searching for the pilot,” a spokesperson for Western-backed Jaish Osoud al Sharqiya, one of the main rebel groups fighting in the southeast Syrian desert, told Reuters.

Mozahem al-Salloum, from the activist-run Hammurabi Justice News network, told the Associated Press that the downed warplane was a Russian-made MiG.

Another rebel official, Said Seif from the Western-vetted Forces of Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo group, told Reuters that rebels hit the aircraft with heavy anti-aircraft machine guns that had been recently delivered to them by the U.S. and its allies.

Last week, rebel groups in southern Syria said that the U.S. was supplying their forces with more weapons and support in light of a new push by Iranian proxies toward their area of operations.

Coalition Strikes Target Boats Fleeing Raqqa

Airstrikes on the city of Raqqa, believed to have been carried out by U.S.-led coalition forces, killed at least 21 people on Monday night, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

According to the monitoring group, the strikes targeted a ferry point on the banks of the Euphrates River in Raqqa, killing people who were trying to flee the city in boats across the river.

The report did not clarify whether the victims were civilians or combatants.

The latest airstrikes come as an alliance of U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters prepare to officially launch an all-out attack on Raqqa city.

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