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.
Three of four congressional committees with influence over defense policy have voted to change the official name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War—but final approval of the Pentagon rebrand is months away and not yet assured.