Offensive stalled[1][2] Rojda Felat (YPJ commander)[4] Syrian Democratic Forces 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Foreign intervention in behalf of Syrian rebels U.S.-led intervention against ISIL The Northern Raqqa offensive was a 2016 military offensive launched by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Raqqa Governorate, in order to prepare for a future attack on the city of Raqqa.

The offensive was launched in coordination with airstrikes by the US-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.

[17] According to Joshua Walker of the German Marshall Fund, Raqqa could be "the beginning of the end" for ISIL, and the most important offensive since Kobani in 2015.

[22] On 21 May 2016 the SDF, led by the YPG, captured the village of al-Hishah, near the town of Ayn Issa in the northern countryside from ISIL, killing eight fighters.

[29] On 3 June 2016, a YPG unit infiltrated into a detention center run by ISIS in Raqqa city and raided it, rescuing a number of prisoners, including a Yezidi family.