Syrian Democratic Forces control hospital in Raqqa

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) battling ISIS in Raqqa have taken a children’s hospital that ISIS was using as a headquarters in the city.  SDF forces liberated the children’s hospital in southwestern Raqqa after violent clashes that resulted in the deaths of 16 ISIS militants, the Raqqa liberation campaign announced Sunday evening. 

The Syrian Democratic Forces militias announced capturing the Children Hospital in the old neighborhoods of Raqqa, after violent clashes with the Islamic State militants. The SDF Spokesman Mostafa Bali said that the Syrian Democratic Forces militias captured the Children Hospital in the old neighborhoods of Raqqa from the grip of the Islamic State militants.

The military confrontations resulted in the killing of more than 15 members of the Islamic State group, Bali added. The SDF fighters advanced in al-Nahda neighborhood, and the old neighborhood located in eastern Raqqa, he explained.

Bali further added that ISIS is now completely besieged inside the city, and they have only two options; whether to fight or to surrender. Noteworthy, SDF, along with other Arab and tribal factions, started an offensive, entitled “The Euphrates Wrath” to liberate the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State grip.

In an interview with CBS’ This Morning programme on Friday, Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy to the global anti-ISIS coalition, said ISIS is “using a children’s hospital in Raqqa as their primary base of operations.” On Sunday he tweeted that the SDF had entered the ISIS command center. 

McGurk described ISIS’ choice to set up its base in a children’s hospital as part of its tactic to use the estimated 20,000 civilians remaining in the city as human shields. A day earlier, the UN had called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow for the residents of Raqqa to escape amid growing concerns of civilian casualties under heavy shelling and constant coalition air raids. 
“The civilian casualties are large and there seems to be no real escape for these civilians,” said Jan Egeland, the UN’s humanitarian advisor on Syria. In order to protect the civilian population, “The number one thing we have to do is defeat them and defeat them as soon as we can,” McGurk told CBS. 
In both Syria and Iraq, ISIS has routinely used human shields and set up military bases and posts in locations like hospitals, schools, and religious centres, contrary to international rules of war. Some 60 percent of the city has now been retaken from ISIS, according to coalition estimates. 

Syrian army forces, backed by allied foreign militias, managed to recapture, on Saturday, three checkpoints on the borders with Jordan, in the eastern countryside of As Suwayda.

Qasioun News reported that Syrian army forces recaptured three checkpoints on the borders with Jordan, in the eastern countryside of As Suwayda, after violent clashes between the Syrian rebels and the regime forces, amid mutual artillery and rockets shelling.

Meanwhile, military sources belong to the Syrian rebels denied that the regime forces captured Wadi Mahmoud area, east of As Suwayda. Noteworthy, Syrian government forces managed, yesterday, to recapture several military headquarters, in the eastern countryside of As Suwayda.