Author: Wang Dehua
According to the Russian RT TV website, the US-led coalition seized raqqa, the "capital" of the Islamic State, at the cost of several deaths and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, and the entire city was wiped out, with no houses left undamaged.
Even more deadly, Raqqa, historically an Arab city, is now occupied by the Kurds. The Kurds, on the other hand, prevented the Arabs from returning.
In addition, the United States is likely to try to use their influence on the Syrian Democratic Forces to weaken the Damascus government, and the result will be "more suffering, more death and harm to the Syrian people." The translation is as follows:
U.S.-backed militias seized Raqqa in Syria from jihadists at the cost of the destruction of the city itself. The victory, reminiscent of the victory in Mosul, northern Iraq, is now a victory for the United States to allow militias against the Syrian army.
Raqqa, a stronghold of the Syrian terrorist group Islamic State, has now been declared "liberated" by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their supporters (the United States). Over the weekend, hundreds of militants struck a deal with the Self-Defense Forces to bring their family members to is-controlled parts of deir Ezzor province. Some foreign militants reportedly stayed behind and refused to surrender.
The incident is just a symptom of a bigger problem facing players in Syria right now, because on that issue those widely acknowledged bad guys are in retreat. Their agendas are conflicting and so far have not shown a willingness to reach a consensus on Syria's future. Another example is that moscow responded this week, when a spokesman for the Russian military had to reassure potential U.S. tourists in the rebel-held idlib province that they would not be killed there by a Russian bomb.
"Russian warplanes in Syria do not target residential areas," a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said. He added that this was the difference between the Russian Air Force and the U.S.-led coalition, which scored an "outstanding victory" in Raqqa and simply erased it.
Raqqa of Destruction
The dark satire of the spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry is based on harsh facts. Syrian cities were occupied after months of coalition airstrikes and shelling. The United Nations estimates that more than 80 percent of the city's buildings are now uninhabitable, and reporters on the ground say not a single house has been damaged during the fighting.
Before the war, the city had about 220,000 inhabitants. Violence in Syria has led to mass migration, with tens of thousands of people arriving in Raqqa over the past few years, but the city's Kurdish minority has been deported and executed under IS regulations. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people were still living there when the siege began in June.
The vast majority of civilians fled Raqqa, with some 1,800 to 1,900 killed in the fighting. According to data reported by relevant organizations in Iraq and Syria, coalition airstrikes have killed at least 1,300 people. If that figure included the death toll since March, when the Self-Defense Forces began preparing for the siege, it would be more than 2,000, several times higher than the death toll of the coalition forces when they occupied Mosul.
The group estimates that in the final phase of the operation, the civilian death toll in Mosul exceeded 7,200, of whom 900 to 1,200 died in coalition attacks, not by Iraqi forces or jihadists. The number of displaced people in the siege of Iraq reached 700,000, compared with 270,000 in Raqqa.
During this battle, Raqqa was blown to smithereens. Extensive efforts are needed to make it safe again before any reconstruction. According to Agence France-Presse, Washington is willing to provide partial assistance, but the scope of assistance will be limited.
"We're not going to be here forever to solve all the problems. We don't have the money and we don't want to spend 20 years here clearing mines. A U.S. official involved in civilian operations in Syria told the agency.
The strategy of destruction bore fruit
Middle East adviser Dmitry Frolovsky believes that the so-called "collateral damage" in military slang during Operation Raqqa was a direct result of the Trump administration's change of tactics. The Republican president demanded a quick victory for the Pentagon and gave the Department of Defense plenty of leeway.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has warned that the goal of destroying the Islamic State (ISIS) would result in civilian casualties. Call this an extension of effective action, despite the saying 'winners can't be judged'. ”
Considering that Washington's goal was to kill everyone, the final phase of the offensive ended in an evacuation agreement, which seems ironic. Even before Raqqa was surrounded, the jihadist group withdrew some of its forces, Florovsky said.
"The rapid occupation of Raqqa is not only a good coordination between the United States and its allies, but also because some of the armed personnel and weapons have been withdrawn and sent to other parts of Syria, especially in Deir Ezzor province," he said.
With the occupation of Raqqa, more and more Islamic State troops have clashed with the Syrian army in an attempt to retake Deir Ezzor province, which could pit foreign supporters in both countries, the United States and Russia against each other. The province has some oil fields, and it also borders Iraq, which makes it important.
A more distant question is who will be loyal to the local government in Raqqa. Raqqa was historically a city made up mainly of Arabs, not Kurds. But Raqqa is currently almost uninhabited, and the Free Syrian Army has the ability to prevent the return of Arab refugees. This "de-Arabization" tactic is reportedly widely used by the Kurds in neighboring Iraq.
Pakistan's three-star retired general, Talat Masood, told the media that the United States is likely to try to use their influence over syrian democratic forces to weaken the Damascus government, and the result will be "more suffering, more death and injury to the Syrian people."
"If they had any problems with the Syrian government, they could have dealt with them differently than they could have tried to create divisions within Syria and tried to divide Syria into weak states and then they could have been manipulated," he said.