Foreign IS militants still inside Syria’s Raqqa: Report

Damascus, Oct 15 (IANS) Foreign fighters of the Islamic State (IS) group are still inside Syria's northern city of Raqqa, a monitor group reported.

What hindered the transfer or surrender of the foreign militants is the opposition of the Western countries, mainly the US and France, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday, Xinhua reports.

It was believed that one of the foreign IS fighters inside the city was the mastermind behind the terror attacks in Paris, according to the Observatory.

Meanwhile, the US-led anti-terror coalition reportedly said that a convoy of the IS militants would leave Raqqa on Saturday as part of a deal reached by "local officials".

The coalition said earlier that 100 IS militants had left Raqqa to an undisclosed destination.

Al-Arabyia TV said a day earlier that Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS, was empty of the IS militants following a deal for their surrender with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians led by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and supported by the US-led coalition.

Meanwhile, the SDF said in a short statement on Saturday that its fighters had controlled over 95 per cent of the city.

The SDF said that "a few days are remaining until Raqqa completely get rid of the cancer of IS".

The SDF also posted a video showing civilians fleeing the IS-controlled areas in Raqqa towards the areas recently captured by the SDF.

The coalition estimated that around 4,000 civilians were still being held by the IS as human shields in Raqqa.

The IS militants declared Raqqa as their capital in 2014, after announcing their self-styled caliphate.

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