U.S.-backed Syrian alliance declares attack on Islamic State in Raqqa - Polidicks

[QUOTE]A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian armed groups said on Sunday it had launched an operation to retake the northern city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State in Syria. The new offensive ratchets up pressure on the militant group at a critical moment, with its fighters already battling an assault by Iraqi security forces on their remaining Iraqi stronghold in the northern city of Mosul. A statement issued by the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab armed groups, said the campaign, called Euphrates Anger, had begun on Saturday evening. An SDF spokesman had earlier been quoted on Sunday saying it would start within hours. "The general command of the Syria Democratic Forces announces the blessed start of its major military campaign to liberate the city of Raqqa," Jehan Sheikh Amad, an SDF spokeswoman, told a news conference in the Syrian town of Ain Issa, 50 km (30 miles) north of Raqqa. The United States would be coordinating air strikes with the SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia and has been the main partner on the ground in Syria for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. The SDF statement said the operation aimed to "isolate and then topple the capital of international terrorism", indicating an initial phase aimed to surround Raqqa before any move to seize it. No timeframe was given. Planning for the Raqqa offensive has been complicated by factors including Turkish concerns about expanding Kurdish influence in northern Syria. Turkey has said Raqqa would be targeted in its own operation against Islamic State in northern Syria, which it is waging with Syrian Arab rebels. But the SDF said on Thursday it had rejected any Turkish involvement in the Raqqa campaign. The Turkey-backed rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner and the YPG and its allies are hostile to each other, and have clashed repeatedly. Syrian Kurdish leaders have previously said YPG fighters should not join the force to drive Islamic State from Raqqa - a predominantly Arab city. The SDF statement said Arab groups would be taking part in the operation. The SDF called on Raqqa's civilians to avoid areas where Islamic State militants are present and to go to "liberated territory". An attack on Raqqa has been long expected, with U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter saying on Oct. 25 that the battle to retake it would "overlap" with the assault on Mosul. The top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said last month that the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State wanted to move urgently to isolate Raqqa because of concerns about the group using the city as a base to plan and launch attacks against targets abroad. France has also pushed for simultaneous action on both fronts. President Francois Hollande said last month there was evidence that Islamic State fighters were fleeing to Raqqa, and that everything must be done to stop them regrouping there.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-raqqa-idUSKBN1310GX?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=581f1c7004d3010388bfa4a0&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook[/url]

This will probably be another Aleppo with massive casualties on all sides.

[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cwlkud3WgAAe9Ed.jpg:large[/t][t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwlknztXAAAUkdk.jpg:large[/t][t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwluljlXEAAtNlq.jpg:large[/t] [t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwlrS6yXgAEAVEi.jpg[/t][t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwlrS6zWQAAtMfY.jpg[/t][t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwlrS6yWQAAj_I4.jpg[/t] Of course, the US is already on the ground there

Mahdi's coming confirmed???

SDF is probably the best faction in the whole damn country. I hope ISIL gets their ass kicked.

[QUOTE=Sgt.Kickass;51318150]This will probably be another Aleppo with massive casualties on all sides.[/QUOTE] It won't be as bad, Raqqa is a far, far smaller city than Aleppo. Militia casualties may be as bad as any other front, but at least civilian casualties will be smaller. It somewhat helps that neither side has air support either to bomb civilian neighborhoods.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;51318590]It won't be as bad, Raqqa is a far, far smaller city than Aleppo. Militia casualties may be as bad as any other front, but at least civilian casualties will be smaller. It somewhat helps that neither side has air support either to bomb civilian neighborhoods.[/QUOTE] YPG/SDF has had and probably will continue to have NATO air support though.

[QUOTE=Taepodong-2;51318619]YPG/SDF has had and probably will continue to have NATO air support though.[/QUOTE] I trust NATO and the US to not carelessly bomb civilians more than the Syrian Army or Russia. Not that accidents happen, but at least the US [I]tries.[/I]