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U.S.-led coalition unleashes airstrikes on ISIS stronghold in Syria

 
A man in Beirut holds a Kurdish flag during a demonstration of solidarity on Sunday with those fighting ISIS militants.
A man in Beirut holds a Kurdish flag during a demonstration of solidarity on Sunday with those fighting ISIS militants.
Published July 6, 2015

U.S.-led coalition aircraft unleashed a wave of airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group's stronghold of Raqqa in eastern Syria in what the coalition said Sunday was one of its most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date.

ISIS said at least 10 people were killed and many others wounded in the attacks that activists said triggered successive explosions that shook the city and created panic among residents. The U.S.-led coalition often targets ISIS-held towns and cities in Syria, but the overnight strikes on Raqqa were rare in their intensity.

In a statement, the coalition said it carried out 18 airstrikes throughout Raqqa province, destroying a number of ISIS vehicles and 16 bridges. An earlier statement said the attacks also destroyed vital ISIS-controlled structures and transit routes.

"The significant airstrikes were executed to deny Daesh the ability to move military capabilities throughout Syria and into Iraq," said coalition spokesman Lt. Col. Thomas Gilleran, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

"This was one of the largest deliberate engagements we have conducted to date in Syria, and it will have debilitating effects on Daesh's ability to move" from Raqqa, he said.

Raqqa is the de facto capital of the so-called Islamic caliphate declared a year ago by ISIS in territories it controls in Iraq and Syria. The sustained airstrikes add pressure on the militants in Raqqa, still reeling from last month's loss of the border town of Tal Abyad to Kurdish fighters. The town on the Turkish border was a major avenue for commerce and smuggling for the group.

A militant website said 10 people were killed and dozens wounded. An ISIS-affiliated Facebook page said one civilian was among those killed and 10 were wounded, including women and children.