The convoy goes to reinforce fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces battling the Islamic State group in its onetime bastion

BEIRUT (AFP) 20 September 2017 –  US-backed fighters have captured 90 percent of the Syrian city of Raqqa from the Islamic State group after overrunning five strategic neighborhoods, a monitor said on Wednesday.
“Because of the heavy (US-led) coalition air strikes, IS withdrew from at least five key neighborhoods over the past 48 hours,” said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
“This allowed the Syrian Democratic Forces to control 90 percent of the city.”
IS has pulled out of the north of the city and abandoned its grain silos and mills.
“ISIS is now confined to the city Centre,” Abdel Rahman said.
“The difficulty in advancing and fully clearing these neighborhoods is linked to the mines that IS has left behind.”
IS seized Raqqa in early 2014, transforming the city into the de facto Syrian capital of its self-declared caliphate.
It quickly became synonymous with the group’s most gruesome atrocities, including public beheadings.
Backed by US-led coalition air strikes, the SDF spent months encircling the city before entering it in early June.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting in recent months. Estimates of the number still inside the city range from fewer than 10,000 to as many as 25,000.