IS retakes Raqa district

Islamic State group jihadists recaptured an eastern district of their Syrian bastion Raqa yesterday, a monitor said, rolling back the advance of US-backed fighters.

"IS fully retook Al-Senaa, which was the most important neighbourhood taken by the Syrian Democratic Forces," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"IS fighters attacked the SDF with suicide bombers and (weaponised) drones, and also used tunnels," he told AFP.

The densely built-up neighbourhood was the closest that the SDF and allied Arab fighters known as the Elite Forces had come to the city centre.

On Thursday, dozens of jihadists disguised in SDF uniforms launched an attack on Al-Senaa from the city centre, carrying out three suicide car bomb attacks and overrunning six SDF positions.

By yesterday, the SDF and its allies withdrew from Al-Senaa to the adjacent neighbourhood of Al-Meshleb.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said yesterday the Islamic State group no longer has a presence in Syria's Aleppo province after withdrawing from a series of villages where regime forces were advancing.

"IS withdrew from 17 towns and villages and is now effectively outside of Aleppo province after having a presence there for four years," said Rami Abdel Rahman.

Regime forces had been advancing on a sliver of southeastern Aleppo province around a key highway linking Hama province to the southwest and Raqa province further east.

The UN refugee agency said yesterday nearly half a million displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of the year, mainly to find family members and check on property.

The agency said it had seen "a notable trend of spontaneous returns to and within Syria in 2017."

Since January, about 440,000 people who had been displaced within the war-ravaged country had returned to their homes, mainly in Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus, Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the agency, known as the UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva.