US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warns it “will not be easy” to regain control of Raqqa, the Islamic State group stronghold in Syria.
“The effort to isolate, and ultimately liberate, Raqqa marks the next step in our coalition campaign plan,” Carter says in a statement.
“As in [the Iraqi city of] Mosul, the fight will not be easy and there is hard work ahead, but it is necessary to end the fiction of ISIL’s caliphate and disrupt the group’s ability to carry out terror attacks against the United States, our allies and our partners,” he says, using an alternative name for the jihadist group.
Western special forces, supporting the US-backed Kurdish-Arab forces, deploy on the frontlines some 50 km north of Raqqa on November 6, 2016, as they launched an offensive on the Islamic State group’s de facto Syrian capital. (AFP PHOTO/DELIL SOULEIMAN
“The international coalition will continue to do what we can to enable local forces in both Iraq and Syria to deliver ISIL the lasting defeat it deserves,” the US defense chief adds.
Carter makes his remarks as US-backed Kurdish-Arab forces launch an offensive on Raqqa, increasing pressure on the jihadists who are already battling Iraqi troops in Mosul.
— AFP
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