Posted on 06/06/2017 12:57:09 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
This is a very large undertaking. The town before ISIS captured it was 240,000 people.
ISIS is thought to have a few thousand fighters still in Raqqa. There is no accurate way to know how many.
Their numbers and effectiveness has been reduced by continuing surveillance and targeting of command and control centers. Precision strikes have degraded their abilities.
note: there are videos at the source link.
Syria Ping
Official announcement of battle to take Raqqa
Missed it by a couple of minutes. Different source though.
Thanks for the post.
I’m just glad someone is watching these events. I have learned that there are some foreign sources that are pretty accurate and know about the events near them.
Thanks.
Smile.
Good shooting.
I read that some of the “leaders” of ISIS called for fighters to come to Raqqa. Now that is a bit of a problem. Most of the paths in are securely closed.
It is unlikely the ones in Raqqa will slither away either.
Will the turks do anything stupid?...
Turkey issues warning to coalition
Turkey’s Prime Minister said his country will respond if the offensive to recapture Raqqa poses a security threat to Turkey.
In an address to legislators from his ruling party, Binali Yildirim again criticized the United States for launching the Raqqa offensive with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
NATO member Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters within the SDF terrorists because of their links to outlawed Kurdish rebels in Turkey and had opposed their involvement in the operation.
“To support terror organisations does not suit (our) alliance,” Prime Minister Yildirim said.
“We will immediately give the necessary response if we come across a situation in Raqqa or any other point in the region that threatens our security.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-06/battle-for-raqqa-begins/8595086
Turkey is painting itself in a corner. Gulf oil money will no longer pay for his nonsense. It is evidenced on how SA and others reacted to Trumps Middle East trip.
Erdogan will wind up having few allies left.
If he goes totally off the reservation, I suspect he might be surprised about he response. Trump is not Obama.
And almost all of Trump’s allies (outside NATO) are Terrorists. Men who live in glass houses should be careful of where they throw rocks.
Meet the new boss....
Oh, they’ll slip away. After a 6 month “infantry only” fight, they’ll make an agreement that ISIS can leave in a convoy. They’ll scatter all back to Europe.
Its delusional to think that we will allow them all to be killed or penned up for war crimes trial processing.
Then we will start assisting the Syrian “democratic” forces in attacking Assad. That’s our Generals main war objective. ISIS is a sideshow. Isis got out of hand and embarrassed them.
I am thinking they shold shut their yaps until the battle is won.
shold = should
Seems a helicopter drop to the south east of Raqqa, was disrupted by IS. Hope this was another grand envelope operation and that they try again with enough horsepower to hold the position. Cut them off and slaughter them all, please.
Yes, it is.
The battle of Truth against Lies.
The battle of Good against Evil.
The battle of Life against Death.
“The Great Battle” Indeed.
I do not believe it will last 6 months.
They will beat ISIS.
Will there be surprises? Probably.
That’s not what Eisenhower did on D-Day. He issued a statement as well.
I have not seen or heard anything about that drop.
Source?
Fierce clashes are taking place between ISIS gangs and SDF fighters advancing through the eastern front.
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