DAMASCUS, Oct. 17 -- The defeat of the Islamic State (IS) group in its main stronghold in Syria's Raqqa province has dealt a strong blow to terrorism in Syria and the region, analysts said.
The IS has lost its de facto capital of Raqqa to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday, the first major defeat to the terror-designated group in the heartland of its control in northern Syria since its self-styled caliphate announced in 2017 in Syria.
Talal Silo, the spokesman of the SDF, told Xinhua on Tuesday that the military operations against the IS in Raqqa have ended, adding that the city is liberated from the IS, but the SDF forces are mopping up the city in search of possible sleeper cells and mines.
Finally, gone are the days of the beheading and the gruesome killings on cameras, as the IS militants are now running for their lives, whether following their downfall in Raqqa, or in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, where the Syrian army and allied fighters are advancing.
By losing Raqqa, the IS has tasted the bitterness of loss, and sure this big defeat has mentally affected the group's coherence.
Hmaidi Abdullah, a Syrian political analyst, told Xinhua that defeating the IS in Raqqa is positive, regardless of who made this victory.
"Without a doubt, liberating Raqqa from Daesh constitutes a big blow to the terrorist groups, in terms of their actual existence," he told Xinhua, using the Arabic acronym for the IS.
Abdullah also pointed out to the defeats the IS militants are suffering in Deir al-Zour by the hands of the Syrian government forces and their Iranian-backed allies.
"The battles of Deir al-Zour, more specifically in the city of Bukama in that province's countryside, will be the last offensive against the IS, as it's their last stronghold in Syria," he said.
The importance of Deir al-Zour militarily is its proximity to Iraq, where the Iraqi forces are closing in on the IS in areas under their control on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
"If the Iraqi army moves in against the IS in the border region, the battle in Syria will take hours before the IS is completely defeated," Abdullah noted.
After ending the IS in Deir al-Zour, the group will be completely eradicated in Syria, and the focus will be shifted toward the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, the second terror-designated group in Syria, which is largely based in the northwestern province of Idlib, Abdullah added.
He noted that the situation between the U.S.-backed SDF, which is an alliance of Kurds, Arabs and Assyrian fighters led by the Kurdish YPG group, and the Russian-backed Syrian army will be discussed in terms of the areas under the SDF control in northern Syria.
He expected that the situation between both sides will be discussed politically, as the SDF and the Kurdish fighters, in general, are fighting to establish a federal rule in northern Syria, a matter Damascus said negotiable.
Osama Danura, another political analyst and a former member of the government delegation to the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, said that the U.S.-Russian understandings will identify the fate of the region in the post-IS era.
The analyst noted that driving out the IS from Raqqa and their near defeat in Deir al-Zour is "an important moment and will determine what happens next."
"The situation will either escalate or move toward solution between the parties in the eastern region, or it will be shifted toward ending Nusra in Idlib," he said.
But Anas Joudeh, the head of the Nation Building Movement, didn't expect an escalation between the SDF and the Syrian army.
He told Xinhua he didn't see any confrontation between both sides, at least in the near future, noting that neither sides want such confrontation, nor their backers.
While considering the defeat of the IS in Raqqa as "positive," Joudeh said that the end of the IS in Raqqa or even in Deir al-Zour comes in the natural context of the U.S.-Russian understanding.
He said the defeat of the IS was expected, and not surprising.
However, Joudeh noted defeating the IS physically doesn't mean the end of the terrorist ideology.
"If we defeat the IS and didn't fight its ideology, it could re-emerge again in another shape," he said, stressing that "the most important thing to prevent the re-emergence of the IS is to reach political solution and reconciliation in Syria."
广东省2017高考英语一轮复习周周练 第一周 星期五
广东省2017高考英语一轮复习周周练 第一周 星期一
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 4 Law and order》学案三
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 4 Law and order》学案一
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2017届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修9《Unit 2 Witnessing time》基础过关作业一
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 3 Protecting ourselves》学案四
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 4 Law and order》学案二
广东省2017届高三英语一轮综合训练(1)
高三英语一轮单元复习精品教案:Module 3《Interpersonal Relationships—Friendship》(外研版选修6)
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 3 Protecting ourselves》课件一
广东省2017高考英语一轮复习周周练 第一周 星期二
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 2 People on the move》课件一
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 3 Protecting ourselves》课件二
高三英语一轮单元复习精品教案:Module 6《Unexplained Mysteries of the Natural World》(外研版必修4)
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 2 People on the move》课件二
广东省2017高考英语一轮复习周周练 第二周 星期四
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修8《Unit 4 Films and film events》复习学案
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2017届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修9《Unit 3 The meaning of colour》基础过关作业二
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修8《Unit 3 The world of colours and light》复习学案三
广东省2017届高三英语一轮综合训练(6)
广东省2017届高三英语一轮综合训练(10)
广东省2017高考英语一轮复习周周练 第二周 星期五
广东省2017届高三英语一轮综合训练(5)
2017高考英语复习素材:担心考试听力素材(Mp3)
广东省2017届高三英语一轮综合训练(4)
广东省2017高考英语一轮复习周周练 第一周 星期三
广东省2017届高三英语一轮综合训练(2)
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 3 Protecting ourselves》学案三
2013高考英语复习素材:表扬听力素材(Mp3)
江苏省姜堰市张甸中学2012届高三英语一轮复习牛津译林版模块选修10《Unit 4 Law and order》课件二
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |