DAMASCUS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stormed the first neighborhood east of the northern city of Raqqa on Tuesday, just hours after announcing the commencement of the major battle to liberate the city from IS, a monitor group reported.
The SDF and the allied Elite Forces, both groups supported by U.S. Special Forces, stormed the Mashlab neighborhood, the first neighborhood east of Raqqa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The UK-based watchdog group said the U.S.-backed forces captured the first building in the neighborhood, amid the withdrawal of the IS fighters from areas that have been stormed by the SDF in the neighborhood.
The SDF began the last stage of the offensive to storm the heartland of IS in Raqqa city on Tuesday morning.
Intense battles raged at dawn Tuesday between the U.S.-backed SDF and the IS militants on several fronts east and north of Raqqa, according to the Observatory.
The SDF reached the outskirts of Mashlab neighborhood east of Raqqa on Tuesday morning, before storming it later in the day, and the battles also took place inside the Division 17 military base, which used to belong to the Syrian army before the IS took over.
The battles are coupled with intense and heavy shelling by the U.S.-led coalition's warplanes and artillery shelling by the SDF, the Observatory said.
The aim of the attack is to dislodge the IS out of Raqqa, following several stages of attacks, which began with capturing areas in the countryside of Raqqa to lay a siege on IS inside before storming it.
The SDF announced the beginning of the battles to liberate Raqqa on Nov. 6, 2016.
But Tuesday's attacks mark the intrusion part of the battles into the heartland of IS in Raqqa, which was self-declared by IS as its de facto capital in 2014.
Even though there is no declared cooperation with the Syrian army, the Syrian government sees the Kurdish groups' fight against IS legitimate.
The government, however, regards the intervention of the U.S.-led coalition as illegitimate, as the state media outlets in Syria release news of civilian deaths by the coalition strikes on daily basis.
