Some of the toughest battles against ISIS still to be fought
The battle of Mosul is over, but the war against the Islamic State is far from done. The militants have lost some 60 percent of the territory they controlled at the peak of their expansion, but that leaves a sizable area, mostly in Syria but also Iraq, to be recaptured.
Much of it is uninhabited desert, but significant towns and cities in both countries, and almost a whole province in Syria, remain in the militants’ hands. Among them are staunch Islamic State strongholds, located in some of the most remote terrain of the war. In some instances, it isn’t yet clear which forces will undertake the battles, and potential local and international flash points lie ahead as competing powers vie for the chance to control territory.
Here are two of the toughest battles still to be fought.
Raqqa
The five-week-old battle for the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa was launched by a U.S.backed force of Kurds and Arabs known as the Syrian Democratic Forces and aided by U.S. Special Operations troops. In the first month, they took 20 percent of the city, according to Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman. That doesn’t mean there are four more months of combat left, however. Past battles have proved unpredictable, with the militants crumbling or fleeing in some places and putting up a stiff fight in others. Raqqa is smaller than Mosul and less densely populated, but there is no reason to believe they will defend it any less fiercely — and the battle for Mosul lasted nine months.
Deir al-Zour
The city of Deir alZour is the capital of a province of the same name, both of which are almost entirely under Islamic State control. ISIS commanders and fighters have been relocating there for months from other front lines, and this is likely to be where they make their last stand. Vast tracts of the province, roughly the size of Maine, are empty desert. But the militants control a string of towns running along the Euphrates River, such as Mayadeen, where Islamic State leaders have reportedly re-congregated. Exactly who will end up waging the battles for Deir alZour is unclear. Most probably it will be the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance that moves on the city, where a small garrison of Syrian soldiers has been holding out for years.