Operation to retake Raqa launched
ain issa (Syria) — A US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance launched an offensive Sunday on the Daesh group’s de facto Syrian capital Raqa, upping pressure on the militants after Iraqi forces entered their Iraqi bastion Mosul.
“The major battle to liberate Raqa and its surroundings has begun,” Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said at a press conference in Ain Issa, some 50km north of the Daesh bastion.
In Washington, a US official confirmed the start of the operation.
“We will first undertake an effort to isolate Raqa to set the stage for an eventual assault on the city itself to liberate it,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The operation, dubbed “Wrath of the Euphrates,” involves some 30,000 fighters and had begun on Saturday night, Ahmed said, speaking alongside SDF officials in crisp fatigues.
SDF spokesman Talal Sello said it would proceed in two phases, first seizing areas around Raqa and isolating the city, advancing from three fronts, then “taking control of the city” itself.
“The fight will not be easy, and will require accurate and careful operations because Daesh will defend its bastion knowing that the loss of Raqa will mean it is finished in Syria,” he said. A correspondent in Ain Issa saw dozens of armed SDF fighters heading on vehicles towards the front line.
The long-awaited operation comes two years after Daesh seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. The militants have suffered a string of territorial defeats in recent months and are under pressure on multiple fronts.
After launching an offensive on Mosul on October 17, Iraqi special forces pushed into the city on Friday and have been facing stiff resistance from the militants. The loss of Mosul and Raqa would deprive Daesh of its largest population centres, effectively ending the group’s claim to a self-declared “state”.
But capturing the two cities, both still home to large civilian populations, is expected to be a lengthy, and likely bloody, process.
Driving the militants from their urban strongholds has been the end-game since a US-led coalition launched air strikes against Daesh in the summer of 2014.
The coalition has also provided training and deployed hundreds of advisers to work with Iraqi forces and select Syrian fighters, including the SDF.
Sello said the alliance had received new weapons from the coalition for the Raqa battle, including anti-tank missiles. And a SDF source said 50 US military advisers would be involved in the operation, particularly to guide US-led coalition air strikes. — AFP
Raqa offensive hikes pressure on militants