Raqqa campaign

US-backed fighters pierced jihadist-held Raqqa from the south for the first time on Sunday, crossing the Euphrates River to enter a new part of the Syrian city, a monitor said, writes The Guardian.
The Syrian Democratic Forces have spent months closing in on the Islamic State group's bastion Raqqa and entered the city's east and west for the first time last month.

Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the coalition to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is set to hold discussions in Ankara on June 30 after his visit to Syria.

McGurk will have talks at the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry, according to sources. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened the US on Sunday over its arming of Kurdish forces in Syria, calling for a review of the Nato military alliance in response.   

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on June 27 that dozens of people were killed in an air strike believed to have been carried out by the U.S.-led coalition on an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) prison in the eastern Syrian town of al-Mayadeen.

Washington is in a "tactical" relationship with the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara considers as linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık in a letter, according to ministry sources.

The downing of a Syrian Su-22 jet on June 18 by a U.S. F-18 near the Syrian city of Raqqa triggered an unexpected escalation of tension between the U.S. and Russia.

Russia on June 19 warned it would track U.S.-led coalition aircraft in central Syria as "targets" and halted an incident-prevention hotline with Washington after U.S.forces downed a Syrian jet.

Moscow has only once before suspended the hotline, which was established in October 2015 to prevent conflict between the different forces operating in Syrian airspace.

The Russian Defense Ministry is verifying reports that a Russian Aerospace Forces strike killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

The attack happened south of Raqqa on May 28, Sputnik is reporting.

The battle to oust the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from its stronghold of Raqqa is creating daunting challenges for aid groups responding to the latest humanitarian crisis in the Syrian conflict.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists waged fierce battles yesterday in their Syrian stronghold Raqqa in a bid to repel U.S.-backed fighters advancing towards the walls of the Old City.

The Kurdish and Arab members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) entered Raqqa a week ago, after months of fighting to encircle the northern city that has become a jihadist bastion.