Twin offensives advance in Syria, Iraq
US forces aid key anti-IS fight
BEIRUT, May 26, (Agencies): Kurdish-Arab fighters aided by American soldiers battled the Islamic State group north of its Syrian stronghold of Raqa Thursday as Iraqi forces edged towards the jihadist-held city of Falluja.
The twin offensives are two of the most significant ground assaults against the extremists since they declared a self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The assaults came as Syria’s UN envoy said trapped civilians risk starvation unless Damascus and rebel groups allow greater access to humanitarian aid convoys. Near the front line north of Raqa city, an AFP photographer saw US soldiers on Wednesday assisting a Kurdish-dominated alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The SDF is working its way through villages and farmland south of the town of Ain Issa, less than 60 kms (40 miles) from Raqa city.
It said its fighters had “advanced seven kilometres from Ain Issa and liberated five villages and four fields.”
“We liberated the villages of Fatisah, Namroudiya, and Wastah as well as several fields. The coming battle will hold a lot of big surprises,” SDF field commander Baraa al-Ghanem told AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said SDF fighters on Thursday were shelling IS positions near Ain Issa as warplanes from the US-led coalition carried out nearly nonstop air raids.
The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, updated its death toll for the five-year war, which it says has now killed more than 280,000 people.
A fragile truce agreed between the US and Russia in February had curtailed the bloodshed despite consistent allegations of violations, but the international fight against IS was excluded from the ceasefire deal.
The first of 250 members of the US special operations forces were due to arrive this week in northeast Syria to support the campaign, joining dozens of advisers already on the ground.
An SDF field commander told AFP that US ground forces were “taking part” in operations north of Raqa.
“There are US forces using (anti-tank) TOW missiles to fire on the explosives-rigged cars that (IS) is using to attack the SDF,” said Hawkar Kobane.
Asked about the men seen on the front line, US defence officials did not dispute that they
were American special operations forces.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said IS is “concentrating 2,000 fighters along the front lines north of Raqa” to repel the SDF offensive.
“IS has prepared for this fight in recent months by digging tunnels and lining them with explosives, as well as preparing car bombs and hiding in buildings among civilians,” Abdel Rahman added.
The SDF has insisted its current camown paign is only for the rural area north of Raqa city -- but IS’s de facto Syrian capital is expected to be the end goal.
“The ultimate purpose is Raqa city. It may not be short-term or mid-term, but besieging the city and blocking IS movements is also very important,” said Washington-based analyst Mutlu Civiroglu.
The battle for Raqa province was announced on Tuesday with much fanfare, just one day after a major offensive began across the border for IS-held Falluja.
Iraqi troops backed by pro-government militias have been advancing towards the city from surrounding areas.
As they close in on the city, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Iraq said she was receiving “distressing reports” of trapped civilians unable to flee.
The UN said that only 800 people of an estimated 50,000 had been able to flee Falluja since May 22, “mostly from outlying areas”.
The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said “plenty of civilians” would starve across Syria unless aid deliveries are sped up.
The United States and its allies have set their sights on Raqa, Falluja, and eventually Mosul in their bid to defeat IS.
But experts said ground efforts are likely to be drawn out and complicated.
“The challenges involved in weakening and dislodging the Islamic State from long-held fortified positions are enormous,” wrote the New York-based Soufan Group.
To definitively defeat IS, Iraqi and Syrian fighters would have to address local concerns, sectarian politics, and ethnic divisions.
The Soufan Group said recapturing Falluja “poses the biggest military challenge Iraqi forces have faced in the two years” since IS seized Mosul, their main Iraqi city.
In Syria, it wrote, IS fighters’ “determination” to defend Raqa will make the fight to retake it “one of the fiercest yet.”
And ethnic considerations are also complicating the effort, as much of Raqa province is populated by Sunni Arabs while the SDF is a Kurdish-majority force.
Attacks
Officials say that separate attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and nearby towns have killed at least 12 people.
Police say the deadliest attack Thursday took place in the town of Tarmiya, 50 kms (30 miles) north of Baghdad, where a booby-trapped house exploded as security forces entered during a search, killing five troops and wounding three others.
Police say that a bomb went off in a commercial area of Baghdad’s southern Abu Disher neighborhood, killing three shoppers and wounding 10 others.
Two other bomb attacks struck a commercial area in the northern district of Saba al-Bor and the town of Mishahda, north of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 16.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged protesters not to demonstrate in Baghdad on Friday because security forces are mobilised in the battle to retake Falluja.
Protesters, mostly followers of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have held demonstrations almost every Friday for weeks to demand a government reshuffle.
Last week they breached the fortified Green Zone, which houses most of the country’s top institutions, for the second time in three weeks.
“I call upon our youth to postpone their protest tomorrow, because our security forces are busy fighting in Falluja,” Abadi said, speaking from the command centre for the operation he announced on May 22-23.
Tens of thousands of security forces are deployed in the Falluja area for an assault aimed at retaking the city from the Islamic State group.
Falluja, which lies only 50 kms (30 miles) west of Baghdad, has been out of government control since January 2014 and is one of only two remaining major Iraqi cities still in IS hands, the other being Mosul.
On May 20, protesters broke into the Green Zone and briefly stormed Abadi’s office, further deepening a political crisis that has been crippling the country for months.
The security forces responded more forcefully than three weeks earlier when Sadr supporters breached the restricted area for the first time and stormed parliament.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement released Thursday its investigations were able to confirm that four people were killed by the security forces during last week’s protest.
“Security forces protecting the Green Zone had no legitimate reason to fire on protesters who presented no risk to their lives or others,” HRW Middle East director Joe Stork said.
The security forces defending the Green Zone used tear-gas canisters and live bullets.
The response angered Sadr and his followers and brought rival militia groups to the brink of confrontation in central Baghdad.
Several military commanders and Baghdad’s partners in the US-led coalition had recommended focusing efforts on liberating Mosul first but observers say lauching the Falluja operation offered the embattled Abadi some political reprieve.
Only 800 people have been able to flee Falluja since Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake the city, the United Nations said in a statement released Thursday.
Lise Grande, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said that those who managed to leave the city occupied by the Islamic State group reported dire living conditions inside.
“We are receiving distressing reports of civilians trapped inside Falluja who are desperate to escape to safety, but can’t,” the statement quoted her as saying.
The UN said that only 800 people had been able to flee Fallujah since May 22, “mostly from outlying areas”.
“Some families report having to walk for hours under harrowing conditions to reach safety. People trapped in the city centre are thought to be most at risk -- unable to flee,” the UN said.
Grande said that those who managed to flee told of a dire situation inside the city, which lies only 50 kms (30 miles) west of the capital Baghdad.
“Food supplies are limited and tightly controlled. Medicines are exhausted and many families have no choice but to rely on dirty and unsafe water sources,” she said.
The UN and other humanitarian agencies have been unable to deliver much of the available assistance due to the lack of access since the operation was launched on May 22-23.
Humanitarian corridors discussed with the Iraqi authorities have largely failed to materialise so far.
Elsewhere, Russia has accused Turkey of supplying the Islamic State extremist group with components for improvised explosive devices.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated Wednesday that the devices “are being widely used to commit terrorist acts.”
He said an analysis of chemical components of explosives captured from Islamists in the region of the Iraqi city of Tikrit and the Syrian city of Kobani, and a review of conditions for selling the components, “indicates that they were either manufactured in Turkey or delivered to that country without the right of re-export.”
Churkin accused five Turkish companies of delivering aluminum powder, ammonium nitrate, hydrogen peroxide and other material produced by various Turkish and foreign companies to the Islamic State group.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesman in Ankara called the letter “the most recent example of Russia’s propaganda campaign against Turkey, and as such it cannot be taken seriously.”
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, a major backer of Syria’s opposition, have been at odds during the five-year conflict. Tensions escalated following Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane near its border with Syria last November.