There's furious fighting in the Syrian city of Raqqa, once the capital of the Islamic extremists' Caliphate - with coalition field commanders telling Sky News they need more international support to defeat the militants.

Field commander Rojda Felat said: "I'm not saying they (the coalition) haven't helped us but it is the capital of Daesh (IS) and we need more heavy weapons."

The coalition group which makes up the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) is pushing into the centre of Raqqa on multiple fronts and believes there is only a rump of militants remaining.

The troops estimate they have control of about 75% of the city but the final section is proving stubbornly hard to reclaim.

Image: Macer Gifford, 30, from Cambridge, went to join Kurdish forces fighting IS in Raqqa

The whistle of coalition strikes and mortar rockets pierce the air constantly, with troops mostly confident of their accuracy.


Amid all the chaos and frenetic activity on the ground, one British volunteer fighter told us how the UK and America need to get more behind the mainly Kurdish SDF if progress is to be made against IS.

"No one believes this is the end of IS, " Macer Gifford told us.

"They may have lost territory but so much more needs to be done to help rebuild and defeat the ideology of extremism."

Gifford is 30 years old and from Cambridge. He gave up a lucrative career as a banker in London to fight on the front line in the war against Islamic State.

Image: The Syrian Democratic Force believes there is only a rump of militants remaining

"I don't know what the future holds for me... but I'm happy knowing I am doing the right thing," he said.

"I can see how people might think someone was mad to give up their life and go and fight in a foreign conflict but this is no longer a civil war. This is an international war, an international effort. The Islamic State is a massive threat to us."

Now he's set himself up as a first responder, often providing the immediate - and only - first aid out in the field.

"I wanted to go out here and really remind Britain what it's not doing in the Middle East."

The troops always knew Raqqa would be hard but it is proving much, much harder than they imagined.

The Syrian Democratic Force may have the numbers, and they have the air cover from the US-led coalition, but they're fighting an enemy which deliberately hides in hospitals.

With thousands of unaccounted civilians, these are targets they cannot bomb.

Image: Macer crowd funds to buy medical kits

There's a certain amount of exasperation creeping in; the field commanders believe civilians are being held as human shields somewhere amidst all this rubble and chaos.

But in this dirty urban warfare, it's increasingly difficult to track them or their enemies down and they're demanding more outside help

Volunteers like Macer Gifford do what they can with the little they have.

"One thing i have always said to myself is that if I'm not here, then they have got nothing.

"There's no one else who's going to treat them… I'm the only first responder that's going to get to them."