30 IS militants killed in Syria's Raqqa

Thirty Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in bombings by the US-led international coalition in Syria's Raqqa city, a UK-based war monitor said on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the coalition has intensified its attacks on areas under the extremists' control in and around the city, an urban stronghold for the IS in Syria, reports Efe news.

The bombings accompanied fighting between IS and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an armed alliance led by Kurdish militias and supported by the coalition.

Meanwhile, the SDF are fortifying their positions in the village of al-Ekirshi, which they seized late on Monday from the extremists, fearing a possible counterattack by IS with the aim of recovering it.

This village is located south of Raqqa city, on the southern bank of the Euphrates River.

Since June 6, the SDF, along with coalition planes and US special forces on the ground, have launched an offensive on Raqqa, considered the capital of the caliphate self-proclaimed by IS in Syria and Iraq in 2014.

On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced the complete release of another IS bastion, the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, three years after the IS occupied it.

--IANS

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