Kurdish forces are reported to have taken 90 per cent of Tabqa city in Syria’s Raqqa province from ISIS amid clashes that have left an estimated 19 people dead.
The claim was made by the official spokesperson for Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which launched a campaign in October 2016 to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS, in northern Syria.
“After taking the old city, we now control around 90 per cent of Tabqa... we advanced against the ISIl and pushed further to the other parts of the city,” Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat (dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates), told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
Talal Silo, an SDF spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the Euphrates dam — also known as Tabqa dam — and some neighbourhoods are still controlled by ISIS but ongoing clashes are taking place to fully recapture the city.
“The first, second and third neighbourhoods that make up al-Thawra city, in addition to the Euphrates dam are still under ISIl control, but the battle continues to liberate them,” Silo said.
Tabqa city is made up of two parts, the old city and al-Thawra city, which is also known as the new city.