Islamic State resist Kurdish forces in key Raqqa districtSeptember 26, 2017 - 13:28 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Islamic State militants continue to offer fierce resistance in Raqqa city despite fighters of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces gradually driving them back into a an ever-shrinking pocket, Al-Masdar News reports. Amid ongoing attempts by US-backed fighters to penetrate IS defenses within the northern neighborhoods of Raqqa, one key western city suburb, still mostly under the control of the terrorist group, continues to see fierce clashes. IS-linked media published a brief video (available at the end of this article) showing jihadist militants engaging Kurdish-led forces in the al-Firdaus district, which is in many respects the gateway to gaining control of other suburbs in the city’s northern sector. Despite claims by some sources that US-backed fighters have secured al-Firdaus district, the reality stands that the district remains heavily contested. At the present time, Kurdish-led forces have mostly – but not entirely – cleared Raqqa’s western suburbs from IS, now limiting the terrorist group’s main zone of control within the city to the northern districts. In the process of battling IS over the last fifteenth weeks inside Raqqa, the Syrian Democratic Forces have managed to gain control over about 75 percent of the entire city area. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |