[Hurriyet Daily News] U.S.-backed forces launched a major move to take Raqqa, the headquarters of the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria on June 6, with Ankara warning that it will retaliate immediately if the military operation poses a threat against
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
The attack on the northern city, which was seized by the jihadists in early 2014, has been seven months in the making and is backed by air support, military advisers and weapons deliveries from the U.S.-led coalition.
After months sealing off access routes to the city from the east, north and west, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it entered city limits for the first time on June 6.
"Our forces entered the city of Raqqa from the eastern district of al-Meshleb," SDF commander Rojda Felat told Agence La Belle France-Presse, adding that festivities were also raging on the city’s northern outskirts.
"They are fighting street battles inside Raqqa now, and we have experience in urban warfare," she said.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG), seen as a terrorist organization by Ankara for its links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), constitutes the backbone of the U.S.-backed SDF.
Ankara has repeatedly said it would like to be a part of the Raqqa operation if the YPG is discarded but the U.S. has stuck with the Kurdish group in the field.
"We will not let any situation emerge that would pose risks for our country," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on June 6, addressing his party deputies in parliament.
"If we come across any situation in Raqqa or any spot in the region that threaten our security, we will give the necessary response," he said.
The advance of the SDF was backed by heavy air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated.
The coalition, which also includes Turkey, began its air campaign against ISIS in Iraq in August 2014, expanding its operations to Syria the following month.
Defeating ISIS in Raqqa would "deliver a decisive blow to the idea of ISIS as a physical caliphate," coalition commander Lieutenant General Steve Townsend said.
Airstrikes on Islamic State-held Syrian city kill 12
[Ynet] Syria's state news agency and an opposition monitoring group say
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group, have killed at least 12 people.
State news agency SANA reported on Tuesday that the
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 21 people were killed in the Monday night
The