Islamic State car bombs in Syria hit U.S.-backed forces aiming for stronghold Raqqa
BEIRUT – Islamic State fighters launched a wave of car bombs in northern Syria Monday as U.S.-backed forces made the first moves in a long-awaited push to retake the militant’s de facto capital.
The Kurdish-led military operation, announced Sunday, seeks to isolate the city of Raqqa in preparation for a possible assault that could deal a devastating blow to the Islamic State – which is also fighting Iraqi-led forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The two cities represent critical hubs for the Islamic State and the twin offensives could cut off routes for supplies and reinforcements. In a rare audio recording released Thursday, the Islamic State group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, urged militants to fight to the death in Mosul.
But the rush of car bombs that met the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, offered an early taste of just how ferocious the battle for Raqqa may become. The blasts occurred as the forces pushed south from the towns of Ain Issa and Suluk, about 30 miles north of Raqqa.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Kurdish official told the Reuters news agency there had been five separate attacks. “The battle will not be easy,” the official said.
At the same time, the United States seeks to calm NATO ally Turkey, which is uneasy over any increased influence by Kurdish groups in the region. Turkey has waged battles against Kurdish faction in the country’s southeast for decades.
The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State said Monday that it had begun airstrikes in support of the offensive near Ain Issa, destroying six of the militant’s fighting positions and seven vehicles, two of them packed with explosives.
The Islamic State group has become increasingly reliant on suicide attacks to slow the progress of the array of forces rolling back its territory. Amaq news agency, the extremist group’s media arm, claimed the Islamic State has launched 120 such assaults across Syria, Iraq and Libya in October.
On a visit to Turkey’s capital, Ankara, Gen. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned that retaking Raqqa would be neither swift nor simple. “We always advertised that the isolation phase is going to take months,” he was quoted as saying Sunday.
The Obama administration is enmeshed in a delicate balancing act between Turkey and the Syrian Kurdish forces it has trained and equipped. Ankara draws no distinction between these militants and the Kurdish insurgents that launch regular attacks on Turkish soil.
Underscoring his government’s fears of rising Kurdish clout across the border, Turkish Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus insisted Monday that Raqqa – a Sunni Arab majority city – “belonged to the people” who lived there before conflict erupted.