THE END OF ISIL ‘IS IN SIGHT’ WITH FALL OF RAQQA
▶ Donald Trump says US and its allies will back talks to stop the violence and allow refugees to return home
US president Donald Trump said a transition could soon begin to set conditions for lasting peace in Syria now that the end of the ISIL “caliphate is in sight” with the fall of Raqqa.
The US and its allies will support diplomatic negotiations “that end the violence, allow refugees to return safely home, and yield a political transition that honours the will of the Syrian people”, Mr Trump said on Saturday.
The declaration came four days after US-backed Kurdish-led forces recaptured Raqqa, the capital of ISIL’s self-proclaimed caliphate and its last major stronghold in Syria.
Mr Trump said the entire city had been liberated from ISIL control, which he said marked a “critical breakthrough” in the global struggle against the militant group.
“With the liberation of ISIL’s capital and the vast majority of its territory, the end of the ISIL caliphate is in sight,” Mr Trump said.
“We will soon transition into a new phase in which we will support local security forces, de-escalate violence across Syria, and advance the conditions for lasting peace, so that the terrorists cannot return to threaten our collective security again.”
Since capturing it in 2014, ISIL had used Raqqa as a base for planning and conducting attacks in the West, including the suicide bombings and mass shootings in Paris that killed 130 people in November 2015.
French foreign minister Yves Le Drian celebrated ISIL’s defeat on Friday and declared “the crimes of the Bataclan have not gone unpunished”, referring to the concert venue where ISIL militants massacred 90 music fans at a concert.
The more than four months of fighting have left Raqqa in ruins, however, and taken a heavy toll in human lives.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights put the number of dead at more than 3,200, including 1,130 civilians.
An enormous reconstruction effort will be needed to make the city habitable again and it is unclear who will undertake that effort.
A spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Defence Forces said the city will be handed over to Raqqa’s civil council once clearing operations have been completed.
But a French military spokesman said it will be many weeks before civilians can safely return because of “the quantity of explosive devices Daesh left behind”.
Mr Trump’s statement did not address whether US plans include a commitment to rebuild areas in Syria retaken from ISIL control.
Also unanswered is how Washington will deal with the Russian-backed forces of Syria’s president Bashar Al Assad, now that ISIL is effectively being cleared from the battlefield.
So far, the Trump administration has focused on defeating ISIL, but some analysts say the accelerated campaign is opening the way for Mr Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers to fill the vacuum.
In his statement, Mr Trump made no mention of removing Mr Assad from power as part of a negotiated political solution, a goal pursued unsuccessfully by former US president Barack Obama.
Mr Trump had already signalled a turn away from that objective this year when he shut down a clandestine CIA programme to supply Syrian rebels with arms.
Syrian government forces, meanwhile, are engaged in two Russian-backed offensives against ISIL, mopping up the last pockets it still holds in the desert and pushing down the Euphrates Valley towards the Iraqi border in the east.
Earlier on Saturday, Syrian troops and militia retook the desert town of Al Qaryatain, in Homs province, in the latest setback for ISIL.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said more than 200 ISIL fighters had withdrawn during the night into the desert, which stretches all the way to the Iraqi border.
The more than four months of fighting have left Raqqa in ruins and taken a heavy toll in human lives