Residents in Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa are trapped in the Syrian city as the militants attempt to consolidate and put a brave face on recent defeats, activists have said.

The militants struck a defiant tone in the latest issue of their magazine Dabiq on Wednesday, publishing the images of two slain foreign hostages that were held by the group, saying they had been executed after being abandoned by their “nations” and “international organisations.”

The hostages and their affiliations were not identified.

Raqqa has been under heavy bombardment over the last three days after a series of coordinated assaults in Paris claimed by the terror group provoked intensified airstrikes by France along with raids by the US-led coalition and Russia that have killed close to three dozen militants.

French warplanes conducted 30 airstrikes in retaliation on Sunday night, followed by seven more on Monday night. Activists reported 15 explosions overnight on Tuesday, though they said the city was also struck by an unidentified ballistic missile.

Isis has come under increasing military pressure in recent days, losing the city of Sinjar in Iraq to Kurdish and Yazidi forces backed by US airstrikes, a defeat that severed a crucial link between its two major urban centres, Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

The regime of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, recently broke a one-year siege of a strategic military base in the province of Aleppo – another setback for the militants.

In addition, US-backed Kurdish and Arab forces have scored significant advances recently near Raqqa, taking the town of Ain Issa, just 30 miles (48km) from Isis’s redoubt.

French and Russian planes pounded Raqqa again on Wednesday while the US and other allies conducted 13 air strikes against Isis targets in Syria and 16 in Iraq. US Central Command said the US and its allies had over the last 24 hours hit an Isis sniper position, four buildings, a tactical unit, a machine-gun position and, crucially, oil and gas installations.

Russia, while not formally coordinating attacks with the US, has also focussed on the oil installations and transport on which Isis heavily relies for finance.



Moscow has doubled the number of sorties being flown in Syria, with the introduction of 25 long-range bombers flying from Russia. US officials have expressed concern that Russia, using bombers, may be less concerned about civilian casualties, which could prove counterproductive over the long term.

Activists insist no civilians have been killed in what they described as “precise” French airstrikes, but they said Russian planes had killed five civilians in a Raqqa neighbourhood in the last three days.

Iraqi intelligence officials this week told Associated Press that the French attacks were planned in Raqqa, where the attackers were trained specifically for the operation. Isis also claimed responsibility for recent attacks in Turkey and Lebanon, as well as the downing of a Russian plane over the Sinai peninsular in Egypt.



Activists with wide contacts in Raqqa said the militants are barring any civilians from leaving the city in a continuation of a policy – introduced a month ago as pressure intensified from the Americans’ Kurdish allies – that only allows individuals with serious medical conditions to leave after receiving a one-week Islamic law course.

“The people feel that they are in a large prison and that at any moment there could be a battle for Raqqa or preparatory airstrikes where they will be the biggest losers,” said Tim Ramadan, an activist with Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a campaign group that opposes Isis and the Syrian regime. “People are trying as much as they can to get a permit to leave.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network with wide contacts inside Syria, said 33 militants died in the three-day raids, which targeted locations inside and around Raqqa. The organisation said families of Isis fighters have attempted to flee the city to Mosul, where the militants also hold sway.

Ramadan said there was no obvious displacement in the city, saying Isis was trying to present a strong front to locals. “Daesh will never show its weakness or that it is being harmed by the airstrikes,” he said, using the group’s Arabic acronym.

He said Isis has attempted to portray its recent losses in Sinjar and Aleppo as a tactical withdrawal that will pave the way for a counterattack.



The group, however, has continued to use human shields and precautions that have been in place in the past, including placing command centres in civilian neighbourhoods and hiding their vehicles among locals. An activist from Raqqa told Associated Press that to avoid being hit in their bases, the fighters have moved into empty homes in residential neighbourhoods abandoned by people who fled the city earlier, and have been ordered only to use side streets to avoid drones, following last week’s killing of the British jihadi Mohammed Emwazi.

Isis is also using individuals convicted of various minor offences to carry out work on the front and even to fight, as a way to bolster its ranks amid increasing pressure, Ramadan said.

Isis has recently mandated that all youths of fighting age register with local police, raising the prospect that it may draft locals into battalions, though such a measure has not been instated yet.

Isis has built a number of defences around the city, though these were constructed before the airstrikes in anticipation of a potential offensive. They include trenches dug around the city and oil barrels set up on roads that could be lit to emit smoke they hope would disrupt airstrikes in the event of a battle.



In addition to claiming the recent attacks in Paris, Beirut and Turkey, Isis said in the latest issue of its magazine that a Jordanian police officer who had shot US police trainers at a suburb of the capital Amman was a militant recruit. Jordanian officials had said publicly that he was mentally disturbed and not connected to a terrorist group.