MESOP NEWS TODAYS TOP OF THE AGENDA : RAQQA SYRIA

U.S.-Backed Forces Declare Victory in Syria’s Raqqa

A U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters announced that they have fully recaptured the city of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s de facto capital, after a five-month assault.

A spokesman for the coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces, declared fighting over in the city (BBC) and said operations are now underway to remove landmines (AP) and search for sleeper cells of militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that nine hundred civilians have been killed (Al Jazeera) since the start of the operation, including 570 in air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition. Islamic State militants took control of the city more than three years ago.

ANALYSIS

“Raqqa, a remote city on the Euphrates River, took on enormous symbolic importance in Syria’s multisided war,” Anne Barnard writes for the New York Times.

“The focus in Syria will now switch to the southeast and Islamic State’s final piece of significant territory in Deir Ezzor province, where Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes and militias allied with Iran have made advances in recent weeks. Victory there would entrench further Russia’s already dominant position in Syria,” Donna Abu-Nasr and Caroline Alexander write for Bloomberg.

“Predictions of the [the Islamic State’s] ultimate demise are premature. What the world is witnessing is the transition, and in many ways degeneration, from an insurgent organization with a fixed headquarters to a clandestine terrorist network dispersed throughout the region and the globe,” Colin P. Clarke writes for Foreign Affairs.

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