DAMASCUS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began their offensive on the heartland of the Islamic State (IS) group in Raqqa city on Tuesday morning, a monitor group reported.
Intense battles raged at dawn Tuesday between the U.S.-backed SDF and the IS militants on several fronts east and north of Raqqa, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The SDF reached the outskirts of Mashlab neighborhood east of Raqqa, and the battles are currently taking 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 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 November 6, 2016.
But Tuesday's attacks marks 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 a daily basis.
