Officials: Is Forces Vanquished In Raqqa

BEIRUT — The U.S.-led coalition said Friday the capture of the Islamic State’s onetime de facto Syria capital of Raqqa marked a turning point in the fight against the extremist group, effectively declaring an end to the military operation there. A U.S.-backed force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, has been clearing the final pockets of the resistance in the city since proclaiming victory over the Islamic State on Tuesday. “Daesh’s loss of Mosul and now Raqqah are turning points for the terrorist organization whose leaders grow ever more distant from a dwindling number of terrorist adherents,” said the coalition in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. Three years after seizing a swath of land the size of Belgium across Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State no longer holds any major cities and is clinging to only one sizable stretch of territory spanning the border between the two countries. The group had used its self-declared caliphate to raise revenue through taxes, extortion and the sale of oil.