The Syrian Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, is dismissing a new assault on the Islamic State group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa as a “media” operation.
The daily says the fight, led by the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was intended to “focus American public opinion on the ‘war on terror’ and show the seriousness of the current administration in the fight against the terrorist group Daesh (IS).”
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
Citing what it described as a “Western diplomatic source in Paris,” the newspaper says the SDF lacked the capacity to fight IS “even if they were backed by Washington and Paris with all their power.”
The daily says the operation’s “sudden announcement” was intended to “cover up the inability of the US to make quick and qualitative progress in cooperation with the Iraqi army in Mosul,” citing the same source.
It also says the operation was timed to coincide with the US presidential elections, which take place Tuesday, especially “with the scandals surrounding the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.”
— AFP
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