Offensive to drive ISIS from Raqqa 'capital' in Syria begins

Jim Michaels | USA TODAY

U.S.-backed forces launched an offensive Tuesday to drive the Islamic State from its heavily defended global headquarters in Syria, the most decisive battle in the three-year war against the terrorist group and one that could draw more U.S. forces into the fight.

Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in the region, cautioned that the offensive "will be long and difficult," but is necessary to deal a final blow to the idea of an Islamic State caliphate, which has been a powerful recruiting tool for the militants.

The campaign to surround the city has been underway for months. The offensive announced Tuesday is the final phase, which involves attacking into the city and began with a foray into the eastern reaches of Raqqa, the terrorist group's de facto capital.

The Islamic State, also called ISIS, has been losing ground over the past year in both Iraq and Syria. Iraqi forces are close to clearing Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from ISIS control.

"It's hard to convince new recruits that ISIS is a winning cause when they just lost their twin 'capitals' in both Iraq and Syria," Townsend said in a statement.

Even with the loss of territory, ISIS has been able to launch terrorist attacks around the globe, often by adherents inspired by its radical ideology.

The Pentagon said driving ISIS from Iraq and Syria is a prerequisite for ultimately defeating the group, although it may take longer to uproot support for its violent, anti-Western beliefs.

"We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester, England," Townsend said. "ISIS threatens all of our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our own homelands as well. This cannot stand."

Last month's suicide bomber attack in Manchester at an Ariana Grande concert killed 22 people. A vehicle and knife attack in London on Saturday night left seven people dead. The three attackers were killed by police.

The Raqqa offensive could draw more U.S. troops into Syria, a complicated battlefield crowded with competing forces, including troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers.

The U.S. military has already placed hundreds of advisers with local Syrian forces and is using Apache helicopter gunships and artillery to support the offensive, the Pentagon has said. The Trump administration has shown a willingness to boost combat support for local forces in Iraq and Syria when it believes such help would be decisive. It does not favor sending U.S. conventional troops to the battlefield.

The administration recently announced it would begin supplying the Kurds in Syria with arms and equipment to help in the battle, including small arms and armored vehicles to defend against improvised explosive devices.

The Kurds are part of an anti-ISIS coalition called the Syrian Democratic Forces, equally divided between Kurdish and Arab fighters. The SDF has about 55,000 fighters, though the U.S. military has not said how many of them are involved in the Raqqa offensive.

The SDF faces an enemy of 3,000 to 4,000 militants in the city, according to the coalition. ISIS fighters have had several years to prepare defenses and stockpile weapons and ammunition.

"We're expecting a tough fight," said Army Col. Ryan Dillon, a coalition spokesman in Baghdad.

Genevieve Casagrande, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said she believes militants will withdraw into the city center, pulling the U.S.-backed ground forces into difficult street fighting.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have been working to surround the city since November, closing into Raqqa from the north and east with ground forces.

In March, U.S. helicopters ferried SDF fighters to the Tabqa dam, west of Raqqa, as part of a campaign to block the western approaches to the city.

U.S. coalition aircraft have knocked out the bridges over the Euphrates, which borders the city on the south. Earlier this week coalition airstrikes destroyed 19 boats, which were used by militants to ferry supplies across the river and could provide an escape for fighters.

The Pentagon announced recently that the coalition’s tactics are designed to surround and annihilate the terror group so its fighters cannot escape to establish strongholds elsewhere or launch terrorist attacks against Western targets.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the new tactics ordered by President Trump are designed to "shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS."

"The intent is to prevent the return home of escaped foreign fighters," Mattis said.

Michael Rubin, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the U.S. will need to guard against an outside power, such as Iran, Turkey or the Assad regime, attempting to take control of Raqqa once ISIS is cleared out.

"You get rid of one set of bad guys, but what happens when new bad guys come in," he said.