Hello and welcome to the 202nd instalment of the SWD .

Military events/news are listed below by the governorates:

Raqqa:

The Syrian Democratic Forces continued to clash with ISIS in Raqqa city. Today’s clashes took place in west Raqqa, where SDF killed 13 IS militants and captured a warehouse seizing with it lots of ammo, weapons and missiles. On the eastern side, IS forces targeted multiple SDF positions with rockets, SVBIEDs and ATGMS. Some of them reached their target and, probably, caused multiple casualties. IS also published images of its drones tracking and bombing SDF fighters in an unknown area of Raqqa.

The VICE journalist Aris Rousinos commented on twitter that as most of Raqqa city has been destroyed by airstrikes, most of them from the US-led Coalition, ISIS snipers move freely through the rubble and harasse SDF forces from unexpected directions. If you are interested in the Twitter chain, click here.

Although, SDF forces MFS and YPG were seen moving in a large scale operation in Al Nahdah neighbourhood with the coalition support. Heavy clashes are expected to take place in the upcoming days.

Hama:

The situation in the central Syrian ISIS-held pocket seems to be clarified by today. The situation there is that all areas north of Uqayribat have been cleared and captured by government forces. Even though, IS launched a counter attack targeting the positions of SAA west of Aqirbat with unknown results. ISIS claims to have killed 16 SAA soldiers during clashes in Khalid Hilal, near Uqayribat, after repelling a government attack.

Homs:

The Syrian Arab Army and allies advanced from Dulayiyat and reached the outskirts of Al-Sarayim, in west Homs governorate.

Damascus:

The SAA and allies captured point 171 and 172 on the Jordan-Syria border.

Deir ez-Zor:

The situation in Deir ez-Zor is more clear today. Tiger Forces, an SAA elite group, renewed its efforts to reach SAA this morning. Their objective was to reach Brigade 137 and meet with the NDF and Syrian Republican Guard units garrisoned in the besieged city. A few hours later, government troops reached the garrison of Deir ez-Zor city, led by Major General Issam Zahreddine, which held the siege of Deir ez-Zor against ISIS forces for more than 3 years (he was sent to Deir ez-Zor in October 2013). As Tiger Forces reached Republican Guard in Deir ez-Zor, it was confirmed that the city was no longer sieged by ISIS.

This event is a huge blow against IS terrorist propaganda and morale as, after more than 1100 day of the siege, the terrorist group hasn’t been able to capture a city which was being daily supplied by air means.

Although, situation west of Deir ez-Zor remains unclear as different maps and sources show different military situations. The situation in Shula and east to it is highly contested as it may have been captured by SAA or is still under ISIS control. The same happens with the area north of Shula, where ISIS may still have a presence.

Apparently, SAA and allies liberated Kobajjep town and 15 km of mountains and heading towards Sholah town.

Additionally, the Russian navy launched several Caliber missiles against ISIS objectives south west of Deir ez-Zor city.

CJTF-OIR :

On the 4th of September 2017, CJTF-OIR has conducted 28 strikes in Syria. CJTF-OIR ‘s main focus in Syria is Raqqa region where they did 23 strikes supporting SDF‘s operations against IS destroying 20 fighting positions, four oil stills, three oil trucks, two logistics nodes, and a command and control node; and suppressed two fighting positions.

Another area where five strikes occurred is Deir ez-Zor destroying four vehicles and a VBIED. The full report on CJTF-OIR strikes conducted in both Syria & Iraq can be found here.

Other:

Intellectual credited properly used may vary from an edition to edition.

Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments section below, constructive criticism is welcomed.

For those of you interested, you can follow me on my personal, controversial twitter @alextorrell where I constantly tweet about different issues and conflicts