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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A US military official has seen reports of ISIS declaring a state of emergency in Raqqa, its self-declared capital in Syria.

"We have seen this declaration of emergency in Raqqa, whatever that means," Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, was cited by CNN as saying on Friday.

"We know this enemy feels threatened, as they should."

It is believed that the militant group feels it may soon come under siege in Raqqa through air strikes and ground attacks.

"They see the Syrian Democratic Forces, along with the Syrian Arab Coalition, maneuver both to their east and to their west," Warren said.

"Both of these areas becoming increasingly secure, and the Syrian Democratic Forces increasingly able to generate their own combat power in those areas."

ISIS is reportedly “|moving personnel around the city and trying to put up covers in certain areas” as part of the state of emergency declaration, according to CNN.

"We've had reports of ISIL repositioning both their combat capabilities, I guess what they think may be coming next," Warren said, using another acronym for ISIS.

"And we've seen reports of them repositioning personnel ... either within the city or even out of the city."

CNN quoted a US defense official as saying that ISIS leader Abu Baker al-Baghdadi "remains extremely careful" about his personal security.

ISIS snipers in Fallujah
Meanwhile in Iraq, ISIS snipers are targeting humanitarian corridors established by security forces to relieve suffering in the ISIS-held city of Fallujah, Warren said.

He added that the shooters were preventing residents from escaping Fallujah, which is only about 30 miles west of Baghdad and is facing major shortages of basic supplies including medicine.

“We know that the Iraqis have attempted on several occasions to open up humanitarian corridors to allow some of those civilians to come out,” Warren told Pentagon reporters in a video call.

“Those have met with generally not much success. ISIL has done things like set up snipers to cover down on those corridors, to kill people as they're trying to get out. So that has really discouraged their use,” he added.

Warren later said Iraqi forces had tried to set up three corridors, but these have been all but abandoned because of the snipers.

“Word must have spread because no civilians have tried to use the corridors in the last few weeks,” he said.

Anti-government fighters took control of Fallujah in early 2014 during unrest that broke out after security forces demolished a protest camp farther west, and it later became an ISIS stronghold.

Warren said Iraqi security forces now “generally” surround Fallujah and have begun to slowly “chip away” at it.

“This is the very first city that ISIL gained control of,” he said.

“ISIL’s been there for more than two years, so they are dug in and dug in deep. This is a tough nut for us to crack here. This is a tough nut for the Iraqis to crack.”

*Agencies