Raqqa campaign

France's military said on Thursday the coalition battling Islamic State in Syria had opposed a deal allowing fighters of the militant group to withdraw from their former bastion of Raqqa, reported Reuters. 

The coalition had also been unable to launch air strikes against the fighters because they had mingled with civilians, French army spokesman Patrik Steiger said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has slammed the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) apparent cooperation with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for escape of jihadist fighters from their de facto capital Raqqa in Syria.

The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters and their families escape from Raqqa, under the gaze of the US and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city.

 U.S.-backed militias said they captured a major oil field in Deir al-Zor province on Sunday, pressing their offensive against Islamic State fighters in eastern Syria, Reuters reports.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they gained control of al-Omar oil field, one of Syria's largest, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river.

Video from the Syrian city of Raqqa, shot yesterday by a drone, show the destruction caused by fighting between Kurdish-Arab militants and the Islamic State group, as well as by the US-led coalition's air strikes, the Associated Press reported.

The United Nations is ready to get into the Syrian city of Raqqa after so-called Islamic State (IS) was driven out after three years.

A UN official in Damascus told the BBC access to the area was the main priority while warning that some 300,000 people who had fled the city had "enormous" needs in nearby camps.

From the top-floor sniper position in western Raqqa, members of an American-backed militia scanned the ground for any signs of movement.

“We have hot soup, we have bread: Come out and surrender,” one of the fighters said on a loudspeaker. “The ISIS members and their families who surrendered to us are safe.”

U.S.-backed militias said they had defeated Islamic State in its former capital Raqqa on Tuesday, raising their flags over the jihadist group's last footholds in the city after a four-month battle, reported Reuters. 

A US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters is poised to begin a new offensive in the Syrian city of Raqqa shortly, a commander has told the BBC. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been fighting so-called Islamic State (IS) militants in the group's former stronghold for nearly four months.

A Russian general was killed while battling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants near the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, Moscow's defense ministry has said.