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U.S.-backed forces fighting Islamic State in Syria launched a new phase of their offensive on Thursday, a statement said, but they have not yet begun to attack the militant group's stronghold of Raqqa city in an apparent delay in the operation.
The multi-phased campaign by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance made up of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighting groups, was launched in November and aims ultimately to drive the jihadists from Raqqa, their de facto Syrian capital.
Officials in the Kurdish YPG militia, a powerful component of the SDF, said last month that assaults on Raqqa city itself would start in early or mid-April.
But the fourth phase of the campaign aims to clear Islamic State pockets from the countryside north of the city, the SDF statement said. It did not say when the assault on Raqqa itself would begin.
"We aim to liberate dozens of villages in the Wadi Jallab area and the northern countryside ... and clear the last obstacles in front of us to pave the way for the operation to liberate Raqqa city," it said.
The SDF have closed in on Raqqa from the north, east and west.
They have surrounded the Islamic State-held Tabqa area and its adjacent dam, some 40 km (25 miles) to the west of Raqqa, which is the focus of heavy fighting and where Islamic State has launched a number of counter-attacks.
Officials have said that the assault on Raqqa could be launched even before Tabqa itself is seized, but the battles there have kept the SDF busy.
The dam issue has taken some time," Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, the SDF spokeswoman for the Raqqa campaign, told Reuters.
Forces were taking care to avoid damage to the dam, she added, which the U.N. had warned in February could cause catastrophic flooding because of the fighting.
Ahmed said the SDF were making simultaneous advances on the front lines around Raqqa, Tabqa and Deir al-Zor, another IS stronghold further southeast.
12 April 2017 – In the wake of yet another dire turn in the Syrian crisis, the United States and the Russian Federation “must find a way to work together” to stabilize the situation and support the political process, the United Nations envoy for the war-torn country told the Security Council today.
In his briefing, Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria added that last week’s reported chemical weapons attack, the subsequent airstrikes by the US and intensified fighting on the ground have put the fragile peace process is in “grave danger.”
“This is a time for clear-thinking, strategy, imagination, cooperation,” said Mr. de Mistura.
“We must all resolve that the time has come where the intra-Syrian talks move beyond preparatory discussions and into the real heart of the matter, across all four baskets, to secure a meaningful negotiated transition package,” he added.
Prior to the reported chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun area of Idlib, modest but incremental progress were made, the UN envoy noted, highlighting that though there no breakthroughs, there were also no breakdowns. The most recent round of talks, facilitated by the UN in Geneva, wrapped up two weeks ago.
However, the reported attack and subsequent events have placed the country between two paths: one leading more death, destruction and regional and international divisions; and the other of real de-escalation and ceasefire, added Mr. de Mistura.
He informed the 15-member Security Council of his appeals to Russia, Turkey and Iran – the guarantors of the Astana ceasefire – and urged all with influence over the parties to the conflict to restore the credibility of the ceasefire, and to ensure that the UN can reach the millions who are trapped in besieged and other hard to reach areas.
The Security Council briefing comes as the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Moscow.
Hailing the visit and the discussions, Mr. de Mistura called on both the US and Russia – the co-Chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) – to recognize their common interests and responsibilities and find a way to work together to stabilize the situation, in a deliberate, realistic and concerted way, in support of the political process.
The ISSG established respective taskforces on humanitarian aid delivery and a wider ceasefire that have been meeting separately since early 2016 on a way forward in the crisis. In addition to Russia and the US (the co-chairs of the taskforces), the ISSG also comprises the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and 16 other countries.
Concluding his briefing, the UN Special Envoy reiterated that there are no military solutions to the strife in the war-ravaged country.
“You have heard it countless times, but I will say it again: there can only be a political solution to this bloody conflict […] regardless of what some say or believe,” he expressed, noting that this is what Syrians from all walks of life also say and something that the Security Council had agreed upon.
“So, let us use this moment of crisis – and it is a moment of crisis – as a watershed and an opportunity perhaps for a new level of seriousness in the search for a political solution.”
Things are escalating quickly … all over the world.
In addition to the powder keg in Syria – needlessly stoked by an ill-conceived American escalation last week – there is looming destabilization in Asia.
According to Chosun, a Korean news agency, the People’s Republic of China has moved an estimated 150,000 troops to the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea) in order to prepare for “unforeseen circumstances.”
Among such unforeseen circumstances? The possibility of “military action” by the United States.
Over the weekend, U.S. president Donald Trump ordered the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN – 70) – a 1980 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier – and three guided-missile destroyers to break off planned exercises in Australia and head toward the Korean peninsula.
This redirection was ostensibly ordered in response to North Korea’s latest missile test – in which a nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile called the Pukguksong-2 was successfully fired for the second time.
Both North Korean missile tests took place as Trump was welcoming key Asian leaders for meetings at his Winter White House in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
The Chinese military posturing comes two months after its government announced the immediate suspension of coal imports from North Korea – cutting off a vital economic lifeline for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. That move seemed to be in keeping with Trump’s calls for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to deal more aggressively with the rogue nation, which continues to pursue an aggressive nuclear program against the wishes of the international community.
