Anti-Daesh gains in Syria clear way for Raqa assault

Recent gains by US-backed fighters battling the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria are paving the way for an assault on Raqa, the jihadists’ de facto Syrian capital, a US official said Wednesday.

A Kurdish-led alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have encircled the town of Al-Shadadi in Hasakeh province in recent days. The fighters have enjoyed broad support from a US-led coalition conducting air strikes on IS targets.

“There’s still work to be done and we expect ISIL fighters to put up a fight, but we expect Shadadi to be liberated in the very near future,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said, using an alternative acronym for the IS group.

Davis said the recapture of Al-Shadadi would be followed “in the very near future” by anti-IS forces encircling Raqa, ahead of an assault on the city.

“The momentum is moving (to Raqa), and the momentum currently is in Shadadi,” Davis said.

He declined to speculate on a timeline for a Raqa push.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said last week that the SDF were in control of Al-Shadadi, but were still engaged in “mopping up” operations outside the town.

The United States has highlighted Raqa, and the Iraqi city of Mosul, as key targets in the anti-IS fight.

IS forces seized Raqa in early 2014 and declared it the capital of their so-called caliphate. In June the same year, the jihadists seized Mosul.

Rather than sending large deployments of US forces into Iraq and Syria to fight the IS group, the United States has focused on training and assisting local fighters, saying they are best able to sustain a lasting defeat of the jihadist group.

Since August 2014, the US-led coalition has pounded IS targets in Iraq and Syria. The jihadists have lost considerable ground in those two countries but expanded their presence in Libya.
Source :AFP