Posted on 03/31/2017 7:50:34 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Commander Rojda Felat
(Reuters) - A U.S.-backed offensive to capture the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State will last a number of months, the operation's commander said, a longer timeframe than previously signalled by the Kurdish YPG militia that is at the heart of the campaign.
Rojda Felat spoke to Reuters near the Taqba Dam some 40 km (25 miles) west of Raqqa, a major focus of the "Euphrates Wrath" campaign by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that groups the YPG and allied Arab militia fighters. A member of the YPG, Felat is one of around 1,000 women taking part in the campaign.
She said SDF operations to seize the dam had been complicated by Islamic State booby traps and threats to destroy it, and alternative plans had been drawn up to take it. She said it should be captured in the next few days.
The SDF has been waging a multi-phased offensive since November to isolate Raqqa, the jihadists' main urban base in Syria, with backing from the U.S.-led coalition. Felat said coalition support had been "much better" in the latest phase.
She also indicated the start date for the final assault on Raqqa may slip slightly from a previously declared target of early April, saying "in general the attack on the city will start in April, if not at the start of the month then in the middle of it".
"I believe that it will last for a number of months, because it requires us to completely control Tabqa firstly, and to organise the campaign plans very well, and to get civilians out of the city," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.mobile.reuters.com ...
The article was posed to Twitter 2 hours ago. I saw nothing in the article that conflicted to what I know of that actual ground offensive.
This is the job that the press should be doing. Sadly it is very very rare.
It is clear they worked with someone directly on the ground near the actual battle.
This is an excerpt, it is worth going to the link to read the entire article.
Syria Ping
Situation in Tabqa and Raqqa.
Oh so now it is going to take months to “take Raqqa”?
Why is that?
Meanwhile I’ve read that all the ISIS (or whatever they are called now) leadership and their families have left for Hama.
The first casualty of war is the truth.
Is this report real, or a false narrative to create advantage on the battlefield?
Hard to tell.
I believe that kind of assault is called a siege.
Why don’t we just level the place and let Allah sort it out. I don’t know why we have all this fancy hardware we don’t use and instead throw our young soldiers bodies at the situation. If we went scorched earth a few times maybe these a##holes would start thinking twice.
“Felat said Islamic State had used far fewer suicide bombers and car bombs in the latest battles, a sign of its weakened state.”
No more stream of new brainwashed young foreigners for suicide operations. They may have stockpiled enough ammunition and explosives, but their human assets are more limited. Their replacements have stopped coming, and their casualty rate is way up.
Key skill shortages will cause (is causing) a loss of capability. No more ISIS use of medium artillery or tanks. Running low on suicide vehicles. Online propaganda and recruiting is way down. Commanders are hard to get on the phone.
The wheels are coming off of ISIS. New cracks will keep opening, as long as the pressure stays on - there are lots of hard-liners who just have to be killed, but the organization behind them is on its last legs as a government/military.
I just wonder how many that left Al Bab wound up with Erdogan. They have been palls a while. But The Dog is playing with some really bad boys. They are apt to turn on him. They already have to some extent. They got paid off by oil money to leave.
Syria is a big country. The S E has lots of desert. But they sure are exposed there to air power.
I’m extremely proud of how the Kurds are handling the civilian population. Much better than you normally see. They intend to coexist with the survivors. Very smart move.
If Assad can make the a good enough deal, they will be a great asset to begin the healing process with. I think Putin understands that and has leaned on Assad to do it.
Surely the are all very tired of war. This has been 6 years of really brutal crap. (Obozo & Hillary’s doing)
Headshake
Raqqa was 240,000 people before ISIS. There “were” reported around 10,000 ISIS there. Their casualties must have been large. Some left. But Urban Warfare is a brutal dirty bloody operation. No way to simply move armor in, the enemy had a large number of anti tank weapons.
It was reported that Erdogan lost 54 tanks and crews in Al Bab and only took 1/4 of the town. That took him 3-4 months.
This will not be a simple turkey shoot. US Spec Ops have some good equipment in place. With good forward observers it will still take some time to defeat the Jihadis. Another objective is to remove some of the civilian population to reduce the unintended casualties. Russia and Syria in Aleppo simply shelled them into the ground. Lots of casualties. There are consequence to that.
War is not a clean business. There are always things you cannot anticipate.
That is my short answer to the question you asked. Bear in mind, I’m simply an observer. This is not something I was trained to do. We have some here on FR who do have that background.
Have you read this?
Welcome to Raqqa https://joeyl.com/blog/all/post/welcome-to-raqqa (commander Rojda Felat)
You might really enjoy seeing who is actually fighting this battle. Great photos, narrative is pretty rea.
Yep
Thanks, that was great photo journalism. Very nicely done.
However, I still don’t see why we need to be involved in ‘taking’ Raqqa or any other place in the MENA
These people are fighting for their own country or region or whatever. It is their area, their concern. They have their own motivating passion because it is theirs, not ours. There is ideology and much history behind all of this, much of it religious, which again, has nothing to do with us. Having spent some time in the Middle East I can say that things are not always what they seem.
Still it is great to see people so devoted to their cause that they will fight for it. Very inspirational. I wish them well. I’m sure they know they are up against people who have at least equal passion for their cause.
ISIS is totally indefensible. Period.
And it must be remembered that the entire war in Syria is because of actions of Obama, Hillary, and ME oil money to overthrow Assad. (absolutely no defense of Assad)
So, we (Obama’s Administration are not guiltless to the suffering in Syria.
I don’t want any of our troops in the Middle East. But we do need good allies there. We have very few.
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