US-backed fighters are closing in on the ISIS-held city of Raqqa, Syria, and the operation to retake the city is coming, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said Tuesday. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said “ultimately we are isolating Raqqa and we are going to, at a time that our partners choose, move in and liberate that city,” according to Reuters. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have been pressing further into Syria toward Raqqa, which ISIS claims is the capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate. The city is now surrounded from three sides, according to AP.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.