US-allied forces begin final assault on IS in Syria's Raqqa

US-backed Syrian fighters launched an operation to retake the last Islamic State-held pocket of the northern city of Raqqa today after some 275 militants and their family members surrendered.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the operation will continue "until all the city is cleansed from terrorists who refused to surrender."

The SDF has been on the offensive in Raqqa since early June and now controls about 90 percent of the city that was once the extremist group's self-styled capital.

Most of the fighters who remain in the pocket are foreigners, according to the SDF and opposition activists.

The operation was named after Adnan Abu Amjad, an Arab commander with the SDF who was killed in August while fighting against IS in central Raqqa.

The loss of Raqqa would hand another major blow to IS, which has lost most of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.

Iraqi forces captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the largest ever held by the extremist group, in July, and Syrian government forces retook the eastern Syrian city of Mayadeen, near the border with Iraq, yesterday.
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Iraq army kills more than 2,000 IS militants in battle to reclaim Tal Afar

The Iraqi forces killed over 2,000 Islamic State (IS) militants and more than 50 suicide bombers during a major offensive to free Tal Afar area in west of Mosul, officials said.

"The IS total casualties in the blitzkrieg during the period from August 20 to 31 were more than 2,000 terrorists and over 50 suicide bombers, along with destroying and detonating of 77 car bombs, 71 booby-trapped buildings and 990 roadside bombs," Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said at a televised press conference on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 40,000 Iraqi fighters from the Iraqi army, federal police and its commandos known as Rapid Response forces and Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces, in addition to ten brigades of the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi fighters, participated in the offensive, which was supported by Iraqi and international coalition aircraft, Yarallah said.

Yarallah also said that the Iraqi forces sustained 115 martyrs and 679 wounded during the 12-day battles to liberate Tal Afar and its surrounding areas, including the towns of Mahalabiyah and Ayadhiyah.
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