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DAMASCUS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured six villages in Syria's northern city of al-Raqqa, as part of a broad offensive unleashed Sunday against the stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) group, a monitor group reported.
Intense battles were raging between the SDF and the IS under the air cover of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition in the northern countryside of al-Raqqa, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The London-based watchdog group said the U.S.-led airstrikes were targeting the IS positions in northern al-Raqqa.
Earlier in the day, the SDF announced the beginning of a military campaign against al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group.
The military campaign, dubbed "the Euphrates Rage," started on Saturday evening in cooperation and coordination with the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, a SDF statement said.
The SDF, meanwhile, urged the regional and international powers that have been affected by the IS to take part in the "honor to eliminate the core of the international terrorism" by providing all kinds of support to it.
Meanwhile, the Observatory, which says it relies on a network of activists on ground, said 30,000 fighters with the SDF took part in the battle to liberate al-Raqqa.
The SDF's first aim is to isolate the city of al-Raqqa from its northern and eastern countryside as a prelude to dislodge the IS from the city, said the Observatory.
The SDF move toward al-Raqqa will surely raise the ire of Turkey, which has recently asked the U.S. to put the offensive on al-Raqqa on hold till the liberation of the battle against IS in its second stronghold in Mosul, Iraq.
Turkey wanted to lead the offensive on al-Raqqa with the Free Syrian Army rebels, who it has been backing recently to take areas from IS in northern Syria and cut the road in the face of the SDF advance in northern Syria, near Turkey.
Turkey's main concern is a growing Kurdish influence near its borders, and that was a main point of contention between Washington and Ankara.
