Kurdish-led SDF claims control of Raqqa’s old city from ISIS

The SDF, which is made up of Kurdish and Arab militias with US air support, claimed Saturday to have taken control from ISIS of the old city of Raqqa, the jihadiists’ de facto Syrian capital. SDF spokesman Talal Sello
said the allied force were near the "security quarter in the city center, the site of most of ISIS] main bases” and 65% of Raqqa in total, while ISIS still controls districts in the west of the city.

This claim was not confirmed by the US-led coalition. However, on Friday, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura estimated that Raqqa would be mostly liberated and ISIS defeated by the US-backed forces by October.  He aalso expected Russian-backed forces to take back control of the eastern city of Deir ez-Zour on the Iraqi border by late September or early October.