In a great victory for humanity, the Islamic State has been driven from its last major redoubts in Raqqa.
While small pockets of ISIS forces remain in the ISIS capital city, U.S. supported Syrian Democratic Forces now control all of the city’s major landmarks and arterial roads. Encapsulating ISIS’ humiliating defeat, a British SDF fighter tweeted a video that shows ISIS evacuating a hospital where they had been holed up.
That video shows where the Caliphate’s holy path inevitably ends: in surrender or death.
Still, this victory did not come without cost; hundreds of SDF fighters and one American were killed in action during the months it took to take Raqqa. And as the effort to rebuild the devastated city now begins, tensions may arise as Kurdish and Sunni-Arab forces jockey for control over Raqqa’s future. If these political challenges are not dealt with effectively, Raqqa’s ruins may give birth to another bloody showdown.
But for ISIS specifically, Raqqa’s fall is a clear omen for what’s to come. Right now, from Raqqa all the way down the Euphrates river valley towards the Iraqi border town of Al Qa’im, ISIS is under relentless attack. Working alongside the SDF and others, the U.S. Military retains the strategic initiative and is inflicting major losses on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s hordes. While operations to take towns like Al Qa’im will still be necessary, in territorial terms, it is clear that the Islamic State is dying.
That said, it would be a mistake for the U.S. to blow the trumpets of victory.
A broader complication here is that the Russia-Assad-Iran + Turkey axis is determined to seize control over the Sunni tribal heartlands in which ISIS’ holds its last settlements. And if the axis succeeds, their unrestrained sectarianism will sow the roots for ISIS’ eventual rebirth. Moreover, as axis forces advance on the Euphrates river valley from the west and south, they will come into increasing contact with SDF and U.S. forces. Unless the U.S. shows resolve in face of their threats, the axis is very likely to attack U.S. interests.
All this said, today is a good day. Iconic locations of ISIS misery, such as the Al Naim square below, are now liberated from the hands of jihadist executioners.
Thanks to courageous warriors like Adnan Abu Amjad, the caliphate’s former capital is now free.
