We should strike Raqqa and Mosul at same time, says US
ASH CARTER, the US secretary of defence, yesterday called for a simultaneous attack on Isil’s de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria, alongside the push to retake Mosul in Iraq.
“We want to see an isolation operation begin around Raqqa as soon as possible,” Mr Carter said during a visit to the Iraqi city of Erbil to assess the Mosul offensive close at hand.
“We are working with our partners there [in Syria] to do just that …There will be some simultaneity to these two operations.”
Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been making steady progress towards Mosul since they began their offensive last week. They are now around five miles from the edge of the city.
However, a simultaneous push to capture Raqqa is likely to be complicated by the competing forces on the Syrian battlefield.
While the international coalition backs various Syrian rebel groups; the Syrian government, supported by Russia and Iran, is also ostensibly working to push Isil out of the country.
Yesterday Isil militants used suicide car bombs and sleeper cells to attack the western Iraqi town of Rutba, the latest attempt by the group to draw Iraqi and Kurdish forces away from the Mosul assault following an attack on Kirkuk on Friday.
At least seven policemen died when around 30 militants entered the town, aided by sleeper cells.
A spokesman for the Joint Military Command said yesterday afternoon that the situation was “under control”.
Despite the diversions, Peshmerga forces edged closer to Mosul’s frontiers yesterday, taking eight villages to its north-east, near the town of Bashiqa.