Kurdish-led SDF forces seize Raqqa train station amidst ISIS decline

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday seized control of a train station in southeastern Raqqa city, military sources reported.

The progress followed heavy clashes between the US-backed SDF troops and Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants.

Dozens of ISIS militants were killed or injured in the clashes on Monday, according to officials.

The station, located in the Qasta al-Sukun district, was used by ISIS as a military base.

“Liberating the train station was another victory for our forces against this radical group,” SDF officer Habun Osman told ARA News.

Also on Monday, the SDF alliance drove ISIS out of the Jarqa town–20km east of Raqqa.

In early March, the SDF troops seized control of a main road that was used by Islamic State’s jihadists as a supply line between the cities of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa–the group’s de facto capital in Syria.

This comes as part of the third phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation, aimed at liberating Eastern Raqqa from ISIS jihadists, launched by the SDF on 4 February.

During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, which began on November 6, 2016, the SDF liberated roughly 560 km² in Northern Raqqa.

On 10 December, the SDF launched the second phase of the Euphrates Wrath, during which it captured over 2500 km² in Western Raqqa.

The campaign is ultimately aimed at isolating the ISIS radical group in its de facto capital.

DEATH BY PUTIN - Putin’s goal is destroying the city of Raqqa Not fighting ISIS

Once the Russian Kremlin announced its intention to intervene in the conflict in Syria to save the Assad regime under the pretext of fighting terrorism, until the Russian aircraft begun implementation of air sorties in the skies of Raqqa city and its countryside.

However, the repeated Russian’ statements of targeting ISIS were not consistent with the conduct of the raids carried out by the Russian aviation on the ground, as documented by local and international news agencies that most of the strikes were aimed mainly at the civilians, and through the shelling of residential neighbourhoods, popular markets and public facilities and infrastructure that serve the civilians directly.

This means that these raids were not aimed at the headquarters or any security military check points of ISIS known by everyone inside the city, but rarely, on the other hand they did not target the heavily armed ranks of ISIS which have long been scouring the public roads within and outside the city in the daylight, while the raids were aimed at the headquarters of ISIS ,they did not significantly affect the human structure of the military, where the losses of ISIS were virtually non-existent because most of the raids were aimed at former headquarters and absolutely empty of the ISIS members and its mechanisms as a result of the repeated targeting by the international airline alliance. 

What makes the Russian raids more advanced than the raids of the Syrian regime?

-The big destruction as a result of the enormous destructive power of its missiles, which caused dozen of massacres 

– Over flights and bombing day and night, which was something that the Aviation of the Syrian regime incapable of.

– Targeting all districts of the city, where neighbourhoods have been bombed that have never been exposed to any raids, not to mention, being purely civilian neighbourhoods.

– The systematic destruction of the infrastructure, and targeting sites that the Syrian regime did not dare to bomb such as bridges, water plants and silos and granaries.

What distinguishes the raids done by the Russian aircraft is another matter, which is targeting oil refineries which are called locally (oil Burners), which is a very small projects of refining crude oil in primitive ways, and they are owned mostly by the local population and have no direct link with ISIS

Also the raids targeted on the other hand, oil trucks that move between the towns of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa and owned by civilians also.

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And it seems like the Russian are trying so hard to convince the world that they are aiming at destroying all kinds of sources of ISIS through these raids that are targeting the Limited and primitive oil circulation which owned by the civilians, and that affects only the civilians.

However, the Russians know best about the economical and oil close relations between the regime and ISIS.

Not to mention targeting many of the Facilities and installations, which have been long ignored by the aviation of the regime previously, such as :

1. the trucks that move oil from where they find it inside areas controlled by ISIS to cities controlled by the regime

2. the wells that produce oil which by the way are still working until now under the supervision of ISIS 

3. the gas wells and the pipes that move it from ISIS areas to the regime’s, which the regime is depending on that for power generation

4. the trucks that move wheat and other sold grains by ISIS to middlemen working for the regime and deliver them to the its areas

On another hand, the Russian tried in Raqqa different kinds of weapons , such as, strategic missiles that were lunched from submarines stationed in the Caspian Sea, which landed in barren and free zones of population in the countryside of Raqqa, as they tried new types of Steric missiles, the residential neighborhoods were taking these kinds of experiments, and one of these experiments for instant , targeting the neighborhood of 23rd of Feb and the neighborhood of Saif Al Daola, where building were completely destroyed , and in some cases , streets were also completely destroyed , which is something happening for the first time in the city.

The civilians inside the city of Raqqa realize that the first goal of these raids is evacuating the city completely from the locals, and that through targeting residential neighborhoods to force the families to be displaced to other safer areas.

as everyone knows that the Russian air force and its aviation are more advanced and developed significantly than the Syrian counterpart, and the mistakes are rarely done by the Russians , when they target a residential neighborhood where there is no sign of ISIS on the range of 4oo meters is a clear clue that the target is the civilians and no one else, as we mentioned before that the main goal is evacuating the city of the locals so the city of Raqqa will be an empty and free stage for all types of aviation, beginning with the aviation of the international coalition who is an assumed friends and ending with the most Aggressive enemy , the Russians and the Assad regime.

In this context we can understand that the US Department of Defense remarks that the upcoming military operation on the city of Raqqa will be extremely difficult and complicated, pointing that what it seems that the city is still filled with lots of people , which is a reason that’s preventing its military operations, and since ISIS has emptied its spots and re-spread in the residential neighborhoods inside the city to make it worse and more complicated, it is okay for the Russian to handle “ The Dirty Job” which is killing the families of the city and bombing it without any mercy or evacuation

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The international coalition and the United States are aware of the Reconnaissance planes that are flying 24/7 in the skies of the city, However the Russian raids are focusing on the neighborhoods directly and ISIS to be affected is almost non-existent, Therefore they don’t care as long as they are achieving their main target which is evacuating the city of Raqqa from the civilians as many as possible , so their aviation can fly later on to destroy the city completely just like what they did before in the city of Ein Al Arab in north of Syria.

It’s ‘hell’ : How ISIS prevents people from fleeing its ‘caliphate’

ISIS has been tightening security along the borders of its “caliphate” to prevent people from fleeing, according to locals familiar with the terrorist group’s territory.

And ISIS — aka the Islamic State — seems to be keeping a closer watch over its populace.

People who live in Raqqa, Syria, the de-facto capital of the group’s territory, which it calls its “caliphate,” are now reportedly forced to register with the militant government.

There are restrictions on what people can take in and out of ISIS-held cities. And women aren’t allowed to go anywhere without a male relative escort.

“Leaving the city is now really hard,” Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, an activist with the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, told Business Insider recently. “The problem is not going to Raqqa, it’s how to get out.”

Raqqa is the center of ISIS’s operations in the Middle East. Raqqawi — who uses a pseudonym — still travels back and forth from the city with the help of smugglers, he said. His family remains there.

Raqqawi said ISIS confiscates passports to make it more difficult to travel and forces people in the city to register so the militants can keep tabs on everyone.

“They are not allowing women to leave the city if they are not over 45 years old, and they are not allowing boys to leave the city if they are not over 19,” Raqqawi said. “After the statement that, ‘We want to register every boy in the city over 14,’ people are very afraid of the recruiting and want to leave.”

A Syrian man from Deir Ezzor, who goes by the name Fikram, told Business Insider that even some government areas “are surrounded by ISIS so civilians can’t get out except under certain conditions.”

“The area that is controlled by the terrorist organization has one road that civilians can go out from, and they open it in specific dates and times,” Fikram said. “Also, the civilians cannot move their personal items like home furnishings from the city.”

ISIS has also been enforcing rules around who can leave its territory. Ali Leili, a who runs the Syrian activist group D’Arezzo, described to Business Insider rules in place in Deir Ezzor, Syria.

“Sometimes people are allowed to leave to [go to] Damascus in order to [get] medical treatment, but not before they write a written undertaking that they will return to Deir Ezzor in the completion of treatment,” Leili told Business Insider.

Residents of other cities have talked of similar rules.

In Mosul, ISIS requires anyone leaving the city to provide the militants with the names of relatives who can vouch for their return, The New York Times reported in June. If the person does not return, their relatives may be arrested.

These restrictions have led to people relying on unconventional means to leave their homes.

“Hundreds of residents of Deir Ezzor and especially young people have left the province in secret smuggling routes to Turkey and then to Europe, [although] some of them are still in Turkey,” Leili said. “Everyone fled because of the hell experienced in the province because of the violations of [ISIS] and tightening the grip on the people there.”

The New York Times reported in a November story that a “cottage industry” of smugglers have cropped up to extricate people from ISIS territory. The newspaper reported that “until relatively recently, the routes into and out of Raqqa were mostly open.”

But now people have been relying on smugglers to supply them with false identification and accompany them across the Turkish border.

Others rely on ISIS militants themselves to help them escape ISIS territory. One woman who grew up in Raqqa and was roped into joining ISIS after the group took over the city asked a friend within the group to get her and her cousin out. The militant was able to get them through ISIS checkpoints without raising any suspicion.

Recently released ISIS propaganda suggests that the group is especially concerned about people fleeing and the damage that could do to the group’s brand.

In September, ISIS released a barrage of propaganda videos targeting refugees and telling them to come join the “caliphate” instead of fleeing to “xenophobic” Europe. The videos seek to reinforce the image of the caliphate as an Islamic utopia and capitalize on the dangers refugees face as they flee to European countries.

“They claim to create this Islamic utopia, and Muslims are fleeing in droves,” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider in September. “A legitimate caliphate … is supposed to be able to provide services to its citizens.”

The elimination scenario of ISIS

ISIS could have what we might call the “blind eyes” from near and far countries, after announcing the “state” and the start of its expansion to large areas in Iraq and Syria and seeking actively to consolidate its control over these areas of all methods, which allowed him the possibility of threatening the interests of many countries directly or indirectly and they were forced to form a so-called international coalition to face this organization.

During the course of military operations against ISIS, the main goal of the coalition was weakened ISIS but maintaining it and keeping the ingredients that led to its evolution of sectarianism in Iraq and the dictatorship in Syria, while who resides on the ground realize that the time factor is in favor of ISIS.

And if we’ll look for the possible scenario to get rid once and for all of ISIS in Syria, particularly in the area of Aljazeera province we will find that the equation is simple and summed up several items from which to ensure the elimination of ISIS and the seed planted in the community.

The first of these items is the leaving of Assad regime, which has contributed to the emergence of ISIS to prove his theory that the revolution is a fundamentalist extremist groups carry the thought of terrorism for fusing even the moderate opposition in this crucible and who went to it when they did not find salvation from the regime, but through it, we find that the largest proportion of members in ISIS of the Syrians are the ones from the areas which witnessed massacres, bombing and killing.

In addition, support for a Sunni Arab force to be the spearhead to fight ISIS and owns a popular incubator being of the people of the region, with the need to seek to regulate them well and protect them of the features of fragmentation and mistakes that made by their predecessors during the revolution and be a real nucleus of a future military institution of the country as a whole, and not to rely directly on specific racial or ethnic groups to fight ISIS, especially outside of their presence areas, and pressure to define its role in the areas in which they operate and force it to stop the excesses that created the incubator for ISIS and shown it in real protector of Sunni Arabs, as well as managing areas that come out of the hands of ISIS so that they become areas a good example of pushing the people of the areas that are still under the control of the latter to look for salvation from it.

Also, must not marginalize the Islamic parties in the next phase and to rely on the more moderate parties to assist in the eradication of the remnants of the thought of extremist ISIS through dialogue and correct the resulted intellectual warp, in addition to support the organizations and associations that are fighting ISIS intellectually the fact that his only goal was the dissemination of extremist ideology among the people and children more specifically, because he knows that he will be demised , those minds will carry this thought and will be the nucleus of the creation of ISIS again, more brutality, so fighting ISIS intellectually will reduce the number of entrants to him and will lie its allegations that trying to implanted in people’s minds.

Parallels the treatment of the etiology and fight ISIS intellectually in all areas where the from Iraq Libya, Egypt and others with military action against him, but the a great disaster in the presence of many parties believe that the regime’s army will remove ISIS and trying to support the idea of survival of the regime to fight ISIS, which is what drives civilians in the control of ISIS regions to rally around him and create a very popular incubator because they prefer to remain under his control that rather remain under the control of the regime than, which revolted ante before, as well as being aware that retaliation of the regime would be collectively and very expensive, and by this the international parties have served ISIS and proven presence in the region for years.

Russia Dropping Cluster Bombs over Civilian Areas in Syria

Russian bombers are dropping cluster munitions over Raqqa, Syria, the city known as the de facto capital of the Islamic State terror group, sources inside Syria confirmed to Breitbart News. Sources say Moscow is also indiscriminately targeting civilians neighborhoods populated by Sunni Muslims, killing innocent women and children in the process.

Russia remains loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has also indiscriminately targeted non-Alawite civilians throughout the country and is estimated to have killed far more Syrians than the Islamic State terror group. Forces loyal to Assad have slaughtered over 85 percent of the 250,000-plus Syrians killed during the war, according to estimates.

A source with Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a citizen journalism network that was created to document the atrocities of the Islamic State, told Breitbart News that Russia is targeting almost the entirety of Raqqa with cluster bombs, munitions that carry explosives which on impact, disperse hundreds of deadly metal fragments. When these submunitions deploy, they spread out over hundreds of yards of territory, creating a situation where individuals far away from the target site are subject to being killed or seriously injured. A single cluster bomb may hold hundreds of sub-munitions.

The citizen journalist network posted photos of the Russian strikes on its social media pages.

Using Cluster bombs against Civilians in Raqqa is A WAR CRIME, international community should take responsibility