ISIS Losing Grip on Areas Leading to “Capital” of Raqqa

Islamic State forces are losing more ground to troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad following the entry by regime soldiers into Fallujah. On Sunday, the army drew to within six miles of the Tabqa air base in the northern portion of the country. ISIS has dug in, but a victory for the regime there would be a step closer to liberating Raqqa, the city that has served as the de facto capital of the ISIS forces since the start of the conflict. A report by a monitoring group alleged that the government air support is dropping cluster munitions in civilian areas of Raqqa, killing at least 10. Raqqa was also the scene of a massacre of government troops by ISIS when it overran the town in 2014. Scores of soldiers who had been captured were executed en masse. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting that 167 ISIS gunmen and 86 government fighters died in fighting in the Aleppo area in northern Syria.