Messy fight awaits at Islamic State’s new capital in Syria

Militants’ commanders leave Mosul, Raqqa for area populated by Sunni sympathizers

WASHINGTON — As Islamic State militants take a pounding in their eroding Iraqi and Syrian strongholds, its leaders have set up a new headquarters in Syria away from the front lines, where they are digging in and likely planning more attacks against the West. The militants’ relocation could extend ISIS’ ability to wreak havoc in the region and beyond for months to come.

U.S. officials and Syrian activists say many commanders have fled the besieged cities of Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, in recent months for Mayadeen, a remote town in the heart of Syria’s ISIScontrolled, Euphrates River valley near the Iraqi border. Although the U.S.-led coalition is aware of the migration and has launched airstrikes there, its military campaign remains focused on ousting ISIS from its two centers of operation, Mosul and Raqqa.

A moving target

Militants already may be communicating, coordinating and directing attacks from Mayadeen, about 120 miles southeast of Raqqa, at a time when foreign fighters are returning to home countries in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia and conducting attacks. Command and control of the overall organization is now in the city, said several U.S. officials, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

“The ground campaign has largely amounted to the U.S. just chasing the (Islamic State) cell around the battlefield,” said Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert with the Institute for the Study of War. “Every time we get close to it, it moves,” she said, noting even reports of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi taking haven in the Mayadeen area.

U.S. defense officials dismiss suggestions the coalition hasn’t acted forcefully enough to prevent ISIS leaders from moving headquarters and regrouping. But they agree the preponderance of their operations are in Mosul and Raqqa. Iraqi troops are still trying to complete Mosul’s takeover, while U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab forces are only just beginning their operations to seize Raqqa’s center.

“If we find them and know where they are, we will strike them,” said Col. Ryan Dillon, coalition spokesman in Baghdad.

Islamic State group commanders have been moving their operations and families to Mayadeen for several months as coalition-backed forces began closing in on Raqqa, senior U.S. officials say. They’re arriving in an area controlled by Islamic State militants and populated by Sunni sympathizers.

Digging trenches

Syrian opposition activists confirm those accounts, saying ISIS brought many of its fighters to Mayadeen. They’re now digging trenches around the city.

Its proximity to the desert and Iraqi border makes ground attacks harder. Sympathetic local tribes have boosted ISIS’ authority. And most of ISIS’ elite fighters are now in the area, said Ahmad al-Hamade, a Syrian army colonel who defected.

Deir el-Zour province “will be the last battle for Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

It will be the “new capital,” said Mohammed Khider, who heads the Sound and Picture Organization that tracks atrocities in ISIS-held areas. “It will be the last castle for the group, and they want it as a capital so the fighters will defend it to death.”

ISIS forces converging in Mayadeen face two threats. While the Raqqa fight intensifies in northern Syria, U.S.-backed rebels in the south, near the Jordanian border, had been hoping to march toward the area. Those plans may be complicated by Syrian government troops who have set up outposts around the border town of Tanf, where the U.S.led coalition trains Syrian rebels.

Syrian government forces could lead a future attack on Mayadeen, having captured significant territory from extremists in recent months and reaching the Iraqi border for the first time in years.