WASHINGTON – More than 90 percent of Raqqa has been cleared of ISIS forces and 350 ISIS fighters have surrendered in the last week as operations by the U.S.-led coalition continue in the self-proclaimed capitol of the Islamic State, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
Speaking via teleconference from Baghdad, Army Col. Ryan Dillon, an official spokesman for the military operation to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, said that the coalition is aware of reports that ISIS has been defeated, but said “clearing operations continue” and “pockets of resistance” are still expected.
“Overall, ISIS is losing in every way,” said Dillon, claiming that as few as 100 ISIS fighters remain in the city that held as many as 2,500 fighters in June.
The Combined Joint Task Force estimates that 6,500 ISIS fighters remain in both Syria and Iraq. However, the number of ISIS foreign recruits has been reduced from 1,5000 a month to “near zero today,” Dillon said.
Tuesday marks the three-year anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led coalition’s military operations against the ISIS in the two countries.
According to the Department of Defense, 87 percent of the land that previously had been held by ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria has been liberated since the beginning of the operations and over 6.5 million people have been freed from ISIS control.
The coalition operations in Raqqa will not end with the city’s liberation.
Clearing mines and Improvised Explosive Devices left behind by ISIS will be the next focus. The Raqqa Internal Security Force commander and two colleagues were killed Monday by an IED explosion and some Syrian families moving back to Raqqa have triggered mines and explosives, said Dillon.
Coalition operations in Iraq have been successful as well, according to the military. In a Pentagon press conference last week, a commanding general for the CJTF in Iraq said that 95 percent of ISIS-held territory in Iraq has been liberated and they are close to complete liberation of the country.