Flyers urge civilians to leave Raqqa as US dismisses Russian proposal

The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group has dropped flyers on the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa urging residents for the first time to leave the militant stronghold, an activist and a monitor said on Friday.

The news comes as the Pentagon rejected a Russian proposal made on Friday to launch joint air strikes against IS in Syria starting next week.

"We do not collaborate or coordinate with the Russians on any operations in Syria," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters.

Earlier on Friday, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu reportedly Russia Today that a joint US-Russian effort "would help the progress of the peace settlement in Syria".

“We suggest to the US… starting on 25 May joint action of the Russian Air Forces and the US-led coalition forces to plan and conduct strikes against the al-Nusra Front, which does not support the ceasefire, as well as against convoys of arms and fighters crossing the Syrian-Turkish border," Shoigu was quoted as saying.

In March, Russian officials said that Moscow and Washington were discussing “concrete” military coordination to liberate Raqqa. 

But the US has remained noncommittal about stepping up its military ties with Russia in the country with the two powers long backing different sides in the Syrian civil war while both opposing IS. 

In Raqqa, residents said the flyers that fell on Friday are not the first to drop during the course of the war.

"But it's the first time that they've addressed residents and asked them to leave," a founding member of the citizen journalist group Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered (RBSS) said.

Flyers usually address IS fighters in the city, telling them: "Your time is coming, your end is coming,” the group said.

"The time you have been waiting for has come, the time has come to leave Raqqa," reads the top of the comic-book-style water-coloured sketch.

It shows residents - three men wearing backpacks, a veiled woman and a child - fleeing a grey, battered city into idyllic green countryside, running past dead soldiers and IS fighters and a sign marked: "IS, Raqqa province, checkpoint."

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the flyers are "just a part of the propaganda campaign against IS".

The warnings come a day after RBSS activists said that a whole family was killed and several homes destroyed in an air raid.

Planes also targeted the city's municipal stadium in the middle of the eastern city, the activists said without specifying if the raids were carried out by the US-led coalition or Syrian government or Russian planes. All sides have been periodically hitting the IS-held city in recent months, prompting the militants to shift tactics and increasingly use residents as human shields, RBSS said.  

"Their positions used to be clear but since the beginning of the air campaign against them, they've started to resort to hiding among civilians," he said.

At least 408 civilians have died in coalition air strikes in Syria since they began in 2014, according to the Syrian Observatory. The US usually stays tight-lipped about its strikes, but it has previously admitted to accidentally killing civilians in Raqqa.

Coming assault?

Reports that anti-IS forces have been gearing up for an assault have been growing in recent weeks. 

There has been growing speculation that Kurdish forces, seen as one of the most effective ground forces against IS, could be gearing up to retake Raqqa from the north. The Russians also said last month that they were planning a joint assault on the city and IS's other stronghold of Deir ez-Zor with the Syrian army.  

Last week, reports surfaced that IS had declared a state of emergency in the city, but RBSS said there were no signs of this on the ground and that the situation and IS movements remain largely unchanged. The group said that people have continued to flee the city at a steady rate, although IS tries to crackdown on people.

Abdel Rahman said he believes a Kurdish offensive on the city is unlikely given the planning, preparation of fighters and popular support required.

"If [IS] had feared a battle against it in Raqqa, it wouldn't have sent its best fighters to take part in fighting in the north of Aleppo province," he added.

IS and its main rival al-Qaeda are not party to an extremely fragile and often ignored February ceasefire between government forces and other rebel groups.

Air strikes against them have continued, not only by the coalition but also by the Syrian government and its ally Russia.