commander sonxuin and her unit are on the western front.t squeeze in a home—made armoured truck with a couple of her fighters, driving towards the centre of raqqa. islamic state are supposed to be surrounded inside the old city. but is have dug tunnels. and frequently they pop up where you don't expect them. gunshots. these fighters, they are coming up against is snipers in all these streets around here. other than that they've got drones, they've got suicide bombers, this is going to be a very hard fight into the centre of raqqa. back at base, sonxuin and her fellow commanders are having a strategy meeting. as the fight enters the narrow streets of the city, they are constantly having to adjust their tactics. as the sdf push forward, raqqa seems deserted. but the empty streets are deceptive. there are still people here and they are desperate to get out. as we drive towards the centre, carts appear flying white flags. there are still tens of thousands of people in raqqa, trapped between the coalition air strikes on one side and islamic stat