Syrian Democratic Forces stormed two towns near the Syrian city of Raqqa which is considered the major headquarters of ISIS extremist group amid information on an agreement allowing the withdrawal of elements of the extremist group. The Kurdish troops threatened to strike any areas of organization to withdraw towards the desert areas.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted Friday that the Syrian leader didn’t use chemical weapons against his people, saying the recent attack that killed scores of civilians was a “provocation” against President Bashar Assad.
Speaking at an economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday, Putin made one of his strongest rejections of blaming Assad’s forces for the chemical attack in April. The attack in northern Syria killed at least 90, including many children. It was followed by an unprecedented U.S. strike on a Syrian air base from which aircraft suspected of being involved in the chemical raid took off.
“We are absolutely convinced that it was a provocation. Assad didn’t use the weapons,” Putin said. “It was done by people who wanted to blame him for that,” he said
He added that Russian intelligence had information that a “similar scenario” was to be implemented elsewhere in Syria, including near Damascus. “Thank God, they were smart enough not to do that after we released information about it,” he said. The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun caused an international uproar as images of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, were widely broadcast.
Russia, one of Assad’s closest allies, and the Syrian government have repeatedly denied using chemical weapons. Following an equally fatal chemical attack in 2013, Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States and declared a 1,300-ton chemical arsenal when it joined the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. That stockpile has been destroyed, but the organization continues to question whether Damascus declared everything in its chemical weapon program.
In the same context, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is expected to visit Moscow next week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday. "Next week, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will visit Russia," said Bogdanov, who is the Russian Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa. "We will be holding intensive consultations with de Mistura on Astana.
"We will definitely discuss the issue [intra-Syria talks in Astana and Geneva]. We will focus on developments in and outside Syria, strengthening of the ceasefire and the fight against terrorism personified as the ISIS [so-called Islamic State] and Jabhat al-Nusra and certainly, ways to find a political solution on the basis of UN Security Council’s Resolution 2254."
"Our position is consistent and principal. We are ready to cooperate with all the sides, having in mind that Syria should be preserved as a united, sovereign and territorially integral state," Bogdanov said.
U.S.-backed Syrian forces made new progress against Islamic State militants along the southern bank of the Euphrates River on Saturday as the coalition positions itself to launch a decisive bid for Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the militants’ so-called “caliphate.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian democratic Forces said they were in control of 90 percent of the town of Mansoura, approximately 26 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of Raqqa. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF has been engaged in fierce fighting with ISIS militants along the southern bank of the Euphrates River, around Mansoura. The river leads to Raqqa.
Already, the forces have reached the northern and eastern gates of Raqqa, which lies on the northern bank of the river. On Wednesday, the Islamic State group’s Aamaq news agency reported the coalition had destroyed Raqqa’s main telecommunication’s center.