SDF Gains Ground in ISIS-held Raqqa

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued to gain ground in the Islamic State’s Raqqa stronghold Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The gains came after the SDF launched an offensive to reclaim the city one day earlier.

The Washington-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters made advances in the western outskirts of the city, where they cleared Hawi Hawa village and took the Harqalah fortress ruins, a spokesman for the YPG militia, which is part of the SDF, told Reuters.

Clashes between the SDF and ISIS militants also continued in the al-Mishlab district at the city’s southeastern outskirts.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, half of the al-Mishlab district came under SDF control Wednesday following the withdrawal of ISIS militants from positions in the neighborhood. Shelling and airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition also hit ISIS sniper points in the district, the monitoring group reported.

Brett McGurk, the American envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, told Reuters from Baghdad on Wednesday that it was significant that the SDF now had a “foothold” in Raqqa.

“The Raqqa campaign from here will only accelerate,” he said.

Assad Allies Threaten to Attack U.S. in Syria

A Lebanese militant group closely allied with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad threatened to attack American positions inside Syria if Washington crosses any “red lines,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Hezbollah delivered the threat via its military news unit one day after Iranian-backed supporters of President Assad were struck by U.S. airstrikes near a protected “de-confliction” zone in southern Syria.

According to Reuters, the statement from the “allies of Syria” said attacks on U.S. forces could be carried out with “different missile and military systems, in the light of the deployment of American forces in the region.

“America knows well that the blood of the sons of Syria, the Syrian Arab Army, and its allies is not cheap, and the capacity to strike their positions in Syria, and their surroundings, is available when circumstances will it,” the statement said.

It added that the silence of “the allies of Syria” thus far was “an exercise in self-restraint” to allow for “other solutions” and that “this will not last if America goes further, and crosses the red lines.”

Footage broadcast on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV purported to show an Iranian drone tailing an American drone over eastern Syria. Hezbollah indicated that the video was proof that Assad’s allies could strike American units at will.

Dozens of Assad Loyalists Killed in Hama Province

At least 46 fighters supporting Bashar al-Assad were killed during clashes with the so-called Islamic State in the eastern countryside of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Wednesday.

Fighting in the area has been raging since Monday as pro-government forces try to advance on a village roughly 12 miles (20km) away from Salamiyah city, southeast of Hama.

The monitoring group said that ISIS militants were also killed during clashes in the area, but did not specify an exact death toll.

Recommended Reads:

• The Washington Post: As ISIS Retreats in Syria, U.S. and Iran Scramble for Control
  
• The New Yorker: While Trump Tweets, Assad and Putin Advance in Syria
• Foreign Policy: The United States Is Getting Dragged Into the Fight for Syria’s South
• IRIN: The Battle for Raqqa Begins
• UNHCR: Funding Gap Spells Uncertainty for Desperate Syrian Refugees