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Airstrikes target Islamic State positions on the edge of the Old City a day after Iraq's prime minister declared &quot;total victory&quot; in Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, July 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

US, allies may increase strikes, surveillance in Raqqa

By LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights officials said Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in counterterrorism operations in Syria. (Associated Press)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death not confirmed by Pentagon

By Carlo Muñoz - The Washington Times

This frame grab from video released Thursday, July 6, 2017 and provided by Hawar News Agency, a Syrian Kurdish activist-run media group, shows U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters in the eastern side of Raqqa, Syria. The campaign to seize Raqqa City from IS has begun in earnest last month, when the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by coalition airstrikes and U.S. special forces, launched a multi-pronged campaign on the city, after securing its countryside during months of fighting. (Hawar News Agency, via AP)

A fraction of Mosul, Syria’s Raqqa no less challenging

By SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press

FILE - This undated file frame grab from video posted online May 29, 2017, by the Aamaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group, shows people inspecting damage from airstrikes and artillery shelling in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS. The U.S. military said Tuesday, July 4, 2017, that allied Syrian forces have breached the wall around Raqqa's Old City, where they are fighting to drive Islamic State militants from the extremists' self-declared capital. (Aamaq News Agency via AP, File)

The Latest: US envoy: Breach of IS’ Raqqa wall a ‘milestone’

Associated Press

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis appears at news conference following a Diplomatic and Security Dialogue Meeting with a Chinese delegation including State Counselor Yang Jiechi and military Chief of Joint Staff Fang Fenghui, at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) ** FILE **

Jim Mattis: U.S. arms for Syrian Kurds will continue after Raqqa

By Lolita C. Baldor - Associated Press

FILE - In this file photo taken on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, soldiers from the Syrian army carry a rocket to fire at Islamic State group positions in the province of Raqqa, Syria. Syrian government and allied troops have inserted themselves into the battle against Islamic State militants by capturing key areas on the flanks of the coalition-led battle to seize Raqqa. They have positioned themselves as indispensable possibly spoilers in the fight to uproot the militants from Syria. (Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP, File)

Syria troops position themselves at heart of war on IS

By SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press

Russia angrily announced Monday that it was shutting down a hotline designed to avoid unintentional clashes between American and Russian fighters operating in the skies above Syria and would even target U.S. and allied planes if they strayed from their zone. (Associated Press/File)

U.S. tries to defuse Russia tensions after shooting down Syrian fighter jet

By Carlo Muñoz - The Washington Times

FILE - In this file image made from video provided by Russian Defence Ministry press service on Aug. 18, 2016, shows a Russian combat fighter bomber Su-34 unloads its bombs over a target in Syria. The Russian military claims it has killed the leader of the Islamic State group in an airstrike. The ministry said Friday, June 16, 2017, that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian strike in late May along with other senior group commanders. (Russian Defence Ministry Press Service photo via AP, File)

The Latest: Putin hears briefing on report of IS chief death

Associated Press

US-backed Syrian fighters seize parts of IS ‘capital’ Raqqa

Associated Press

FILE - In this Sunday, April 30, 2017, file photo, provided by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), shows a fighter from the SDF carrying weapons as he looks toward the northern town of Tabqa, Syria. A U.S. military official says the offensive against the Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa &quot;will be long and difficult.&quot; Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, says the assault by the Syrian Democratic Forces will deliver a decisive blow to the idea of IS &quot;as a physical caliphate.&quot; The Kurdish-led force launched an offensive to capture Raqqa on Tuesday.(Syrian Democratic Forces, via AP, File)

Raqqa ISIS capital assault by U.S-backed forces begins

By Carlo Muñoz - The Washington Times

In this Monday, March 6, 2017, file photo, this frame grab from a video provided by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), shows fighters from the SDF opening fire on an Islamic State group's position, in Raqqa's eastern countryside, Syria. (Syria Democratic Forces, via AP, File)

U.S.-backed Syrian force attacks ISIS-held capital of Raqqa

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

Syrian Democratic Forces have made their way to Raqqa and begun a final battle to retake the city from the Islamic State group. (Reuters)

Raqqa ISIS capital assault by U.S-backed Syrian forces begins

By Carlo Muñoz - The Washington Times

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, right, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, ahead of the Somalia Conference, in London, Thursday, May 11, 2017. (Prime Minister's Press Service, Pool Photo via AP)

Pentagon tries to ease Turkey’s concerns with arming Kurds

By LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press

This photo provided by Hawar News Agency, a Kurdish-run news agency, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows fighters from the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces carrying the coffins of their comrades, who were killed Tuesday by a misdirected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition, during their funeral procession, in Tal al-Abyad, northeast Syria, Thursday, April 13, 2017. U.S. Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces, for a strike intended to target Islamic State militants south of their Tabqa stronghold. (Hawar News Agency via AP)

Misdirected US strike killed 18 allied fighters in Syria

By PHILIP ISSA and BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press

The Latest: Syria’s UN envoy says US ‘invading’ country

Associated Press

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, center, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, arrive to attend the Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS, Wednesday, March 22, 2017, at the State Department in Washington. Top officials from the 68-nation coalition fighting the Islamic State group are looking to increase pressure on the group as U.S.-backed forces move closer to retaking Mosul. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Airlift of forces in Syria shows growing US involvement

By ROBERT BURNS - Associated Press

This frame grab from video provided on Tuesday March 21, 2017, by Ahrar al-Sham, Syrian militant group outlet that is consistent with independent AP reporting, shows fighters from Ahrar al-Sham militant group gather during a battle against Syrian government forces, in an eastern neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. Syrian government forces launched a counter-attack against rebels in Damascus on Tuesday, following a rebel suicide car bombing and another insurgent assault earlier in the day in the country's capital, media reports said. (Ahrar al-Sham, Syrian militant group, via AP)

US forces ferry Syrian-Kurdish fighters behind IS lines

By PHILIP ISSA and ROBERT BURNS - Associated Press

FILE - This frame grab from a video provided by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), shows fighters from the SDF opening fire on an Islamic State group's position, in Raqqa's eastern countryside, Syria, Monday, March 6, 2017. The main U.S.-backed force fighting the Islamic State group in Syria has enough fighters to capture the extremists' de facto capital of Raqqa north of the country at a time when U.S. troops are playing a bigger role on the ground in the battle to conquer the city, a spokeswoman for the force said Friday, March 10, 2017. (Syria Democratic Forces, via AP)

Backed by US troops, SDF confident can capture IS ‘capital’

By BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press

FILE - This Tuesday, March 7, 2017 frame grab from video provided by Arab 24 network, shows U.S. forces patrol on the outskirts of the Syrian town, Manbij, a flashpoint between Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, in al-Asaliyah village, Aleppo province, Syria. Rolling 200 Marines backed with Howitzers into northern Syria, the Trump administration is ditching its predecessor’s style of working quietly behind the scenes in Syria’s conflict, opting instead for dramatic displays of U.S. force in an attempt to shape the fight. The latest deployment significantly widens America’s footprint in a highly toxic battlefield and risks drawing troops into a long and costly war with unpredictable outcome. (Arab 24 network, via AP, File)

US force in Syria to help anti-IS fighters with firepower

By PHILIP ISSA and BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press

FILE - In this undated file photo released by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave flags on their vehicles, in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, from Raqqa, Syria. A major battle to liberate the northern Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants is looming, with U.S. officials looking to build on momentum from the battlefields in Mosul. Armed with a new Pentagon plan to “rapidly defeat” the militants in both countries, President Donald Trump is now mulling options for upping the fight, which a top U.S. commander says he expects to be concluded within six months. (Militant website via AP, File)

Rivals in Syria race to assault militants’ ‘capital’ Raqqa

By BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press