RAQQA, June 30 (Al Jazeera): US-backed fighters have seized the last road into Raqqa, and now say they have completely encircled the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) de facto capital in northern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) "have completely surrounded and besieged the Islamic militants inside al-Raqqa city from all sides," the group said in a statement released late on Thursday.
The Kurdish-led SDF had been advancing from the city's east after they seized a major stronghold in May, and from the west and north.
 "South of the Euphrates river the SDF now control all high-speed routes into Raqqa," Joe Scrocca, spokesman for the US-led coalition, told the Associated Press.
Moving toward the Euphrates from the east "would completely encircle the city and has been the SDF plan from the start", Scrocca added.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria through a network of activists on the ground, said the SDF had seized villages across the river, moving through the Kasret al-Faraj area.
The Observatory described it as a "strategic" advance that completes the siege around Raqqa.
"IS has no other choice now but to surrender or fight to the end," said the Observatory director, Rami Abdelrahman, using a different acronym for the group.
Hours after the advances, ISIL fighters carried out a counter-attack on SDF forces east of the city, regaining control of sections of al-Sinaa and Mashalab neighborhoods, which were captured in the early days of the offensive, Abdelrahman said. [Read More]

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Source: The Financial Express