Battle for ar-Raqqa

Battle for ar-Raqqa

Part of: Syrian Civil War

date	May 2016 to October 2017
place	ar-Raqqa coordinates: 35 ° 56 ′ 58 ″  N , 39 ° 1 ′ 13 ″  E
output	Coalition victory
consequences	Expulsion of IS from Raqqa and the surrounding area

Parties to the conflict
Democratic Forces Syria United States France United Kingdom	Islamic State
Commander
Rojda Felat ( y pj -Kommandeurin) Sipan Hemo ( YPG deputy commander) Cinema Gabriel ( MFS -Kommandeur) Fayad Ghanim (Syrian opposition, Raqqa Eagle brigade commander) Abu Issa (Dschabhat-Thuwwar-ar-Raqqa commander) Muhedi Dschayila (Syrian Opposition, elite units commander) Bandar al-Humaydi ( al-Sanadid armed forces , military commander) Siyamend Welat (HXP commander) Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend	Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (leader of IS) Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti † (chief IS commander for Raqqa) Abu Jandal al-Masri (information director in Raqqa) Abu Muhammad al-Jazrawi (head of the al-Hisba secret police) Mahmoud al -Isawi † (IS proganga leader) Abd al-Basit al-Iraqi † (IS commander of the Middle Eastern external network) Zainuri Kamaruddin † (Katiba Nusantara commander) Abu Luqman

The battle for ar-Raqqa was code-named Operation Wrath of the Euphrates ( Arabic عملية غضب الفرات, DMG 'amalīyat ġaḍab al-Firat , English Operation Wrath of Euphrates ) of May 2016 taking place until October 2017 military offensive to retake the Syrian city of ar-Raqqa from the hands of terrorists operating Sunni militia Islamic State (IS), the city in Syrian Civil War brought under their control in 2013. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which consists of Kurdish , Assyrian-Christian , Sunni and Shiite militiamen and are supported by US units and fighter planes of the international anti-IS coalition , are fighting against IS .

prehistory

Northern Raqqa Offensive

Ar-Raqqa is a strategically important city in northern Syria on the banks of the Euphrates . In the first half of 2016, the city of ar-Raqqa was a stronghold of the IS terrorist militia. At the end of May, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), among others supported by the USA, launched a major offensive against the terrorist organization. In early November 2016, 30,000 fighters from the Kurdish-Arab SDF began direct attacks against ar-Raqqa. The Kurdish commander Rojda Felat had the supreme command . In April 2017, according to estimates, around 100,000 civilians and 5,000 IS fighters were still in Raqqa, including 1,500 foreign volunteers.

course

In May 2017, the Kurdish armed forces reached the outer city limits of ar-Raqqa in the north of the city. To defend the city, the IS fighters flooded lower-lying western parts of the city in the outskirts in order to stop the advance of Kurdish associations. By the beginning of June 2017, around 10,000 people had fled the city to a camp in the north that was being looked after by the Doctors Without Borders organization, among others . On the morning of June 6, 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began storming the city, with air support from the US-led International Alliance against the Islamic State . According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, fierce fighting broke out on the northern and eastern outskirts of the city . As a spokesman for the rebel alliance reported, ISIS was attacked from three directions. The units advanced on the city from the north, west and east.

After two days of fighting, the SDF captured the ar-Rumaniya district west of ar-Raqqa on June 11, 2017, opening a second front within the city. They killed twelve IS fighters, and civilians also died during the accompanying air strikes by the US-led coalition. The SDF fighters already controlled the al-Mashalab district and entered the Sabahiyya district. Around 4,000 IS fighters resided within ar-Raqqa, most of whom were concentrated in the north of the city. The entrances to the west and east of ar-Raqqa were only lightly defended by IS. For months, the SDF had besieged ar-Raqqa in preparation for the offensive. During the fight against ISIS, the Syrian army captured a number of villages west of ar-Raqqa and an important connecting route. The IS was surprised with the offensive. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported corresponding land gains. The area was of particular importance to ISIS, as it was from there that it could attack towns and roads that were under the control of the Syrian army. In addition, SDF fighters reached the walls of the old town of ar-Raqqa from the east on June 12th. The IS had its headquarters in the operational area. In addition, there were between 2,500 and 5,000 IS fighters there. According to the United Nations , around 160,000 people were trapped in ar-Raqqa, who were increasingly also victims of the US-led air strikes.

On June 29th, SDF associations closed the ring around the city completely and controlled about 15% of the city area. On July 4, the attackers succeeded in penetrating the old town for the first time. Previously, two parts of the city wall, each 25 meters long, had been destroyed by bombing by coalition troops.

At the beginning of September 2017, the SDF succeeded in liberating the old town of ar-Raqqa. In mid-October 2017, most of the remaining IS fighters left the city according to an agreement; some fighters remain and hold 400 hostages in a hospital.

The last of IS fighters of Syrian origin in the city gave up after the negotiations and were taken away shortly before the end of the fighting with civilians. The remnants of the IS units with foreign volunteers, who were excluded from the agreement, were initially assumed to perish in the fighting. 22 IS fighters were killed in the storming of the IS headquarters in the hospital. The last bastions of the IS fell on October 17, 2017 with the hospital and the stadium. The SDF then announced the end of the fighting.

It later emerged that almost 3,750 people had left the city under the protection of the agreement, including many foreign IS fighters. While many of these fighters went to the remaining IS areas in eastern Syria, others had fled to Turkey with the help of smugglers.

Picture gallery

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  SDF fighters in the former Turkish exclave Caber Kalesi (January 10, 2017)

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  A Kurdish fighter attaches an SDF flag

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  An MT-LB at the SDF during the offensive

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  YPJ fighters (February 7, 2017)

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  Fighters of the Deir ez-Zor Military Council (March 9, 2017)

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  Toyota Hilux and other YPG and YPJ cars near Tabqa (April 9, 2017)

See also

• Chronicle of the civil war in Syria 2017
• Turkish military offensive in northern Syria 2016/17
• Battle for Mosul
• Battle for Sharaf ad-Din
• Battle for Tikrit

Web links

Commons : Battle for ar-Raqqa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Christoph Sydow: Battle for the heart of IS . In: Spiegel Online . November 8, 2016, accessed July 6, 2017.
• All news and information from the FAZ on Raqqa . In: faz.net . Retrieved July 6, 2017.
• Syrian Civil War Map

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rebels step up offensive on IS stronghold of Raqqa. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 30, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
2. ^ Offensive to recapture the IS stronghold of Raqqa. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. November 9, 2016, accessed June 6, 2017.
3. ↑ Moritz tree Stieger: Rojsa Felat - commanding officer of the offensive against the IS in Raqqa and Bismarck fan . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of November 9, 2016, p. 4.
4. ↑ 'Hundreds of us will die in Raqqa': the women fighting Isis. In: The Guardian online . April 30, 2017, accessed June 6, 2017.
5. ↑ Kurdish forces capture three villages just ten kilometers north of ISIS-held Raqqa. In: almasdarnews.com. May 11, 2017, accessed June 6, 2017.
6. ↑ Christoph Reuter: Provincial town of Raqqa flooded, water - the new weapon of IS. In: Spiegel Online . May 24, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
7. ↑ Thousands of civilians are fleeing from the Syrian IS stronghold of Raqqa. In: Reuters.com . June 1, 2017, accessed July 6, 2017.
8. ↑ Kurdish-led alliance begins with storming IS stronghold Al-Raqqa. ( Memento from June 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: FAZ.net. June 6, 2017.
9. ^ IS stronghold: Syrian Kurds launch offensive on Raqqa . In: Tagesschau.de . June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
10. ↑ IS loses control of districts of Raqqa . In: Die Zeit online . June 11, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
11. ↑ Syrian army achieves success in the fight against IS . In: Reuters .de . June 12, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
12. ↑ The battle after the battle . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online . June 13, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
13. ↑ Lizzie Dearden: Isis' last escape route from Raqqa 'cut off' by US-backed SDF fighters, says Syrian monitoring group . In: The Independent online . June 29, 2017 (English).
14. ↑ IS is on the defensive in the Syrian stronghold of al-Raqqa. In: ORF.at . July 4, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
15. ↑ Spiegel.de:Kurden report conquest of the old town of Raqqa
16. ↑ N-tv: de: IS fighters flee from a former stronghold , accessed on October 14, 2017.
17. ↑ Patrick Cockburn: "Raqqa: Isis 'capital' liberated by US-backed forces - but civilians face months of hardship with city left devastated" The Independent of October 17, 2017
18. ^ "'The last bastions fallen" ORF online from October 17, 2017
19. ↑ Welt.de: Anti-IS alliance announces conquest of Rqqa
20. ↑ Thomas Seibert: "USA allowed IS fighters to escape from Raqqa" Tagesspiegel from November 11, 2017
21. ↑ Quentin Sommerville, Riam Dalati: Raqqa's dirty secret. BBC, November 13, 2017, accessed November 15, 2017 .