What's next for Syria? - Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor 50% liberated from ISIS

in #geopolitics7 years ago

The MSM has been mostly ignoring the current situation in Syria, so let's take a look what's been happening.

Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor 50% liberated from ISIS


Source: Cizire Canton

The Islamic State has suffered huge losses over the past few weeks, resulting in lost territory all over Syria. The Syrian army and its allies, as well as the Syrian Democratic Forces (mostly Kurdish forces) have gained ground in multiple parts of Syria. As a result, most of the Islamic State fighters fled towards the city of Deir ez-Zor, which they also declared their new capital city.

At the time this happened, the coalition of NATO and their proxies intended to establish so-called de-escalation zones in Syria, violating the country's sovereignty. However, the Syrian army prevented this by isolating US proxies in the south of the country, cutting ISIS terrotiry in two and reaching the Syrian-Iraqi border.

The Syrian Army has now officially foiled the US/coalition attempt in South-East Syria.

Source: liveuamap.com

Now that the Islamic State's two largest cities have almost been taken, is this the end for them?


Source: YouTube channel 'Syriana Analysis'

My expectation is that soon we will see an end to the Islamic State in its current form and a transition to a guerrilla terrorist group like it used to be. It has become clear that ISIS cannot sustain a full scale overt war against multiple professional armed forces, such as the Syrian army, the Iraqi army, Kurdish forces, Hezbollah and the coalition airforce. So, I expect that the Islamic State will have to convert itself into a covert organization again, just like Al-Qaeda used to be.

ISIS won't go down without a fight, though. Most of the fighters that are still around will probably fight to the death. Moreover, it is very probable that we will see some more terrorist attacks in Western countries too. Let's just hope this will stay at a minimum and nobody gets hurt.

The conflict won't be over yet

Of course, the armed conflict in the Middle East will rage on for a longer time, unfortunately. The Islamic State is just one of the many players on the geopolitical chessboard in the region. You have to remember that Al-Qaeda, and later ISIS, were a creation, so to speak, of foreign intervention and the importation of wahabbi Islam to the region. So, on the one hand there are still multiple armed groups active in the region who seek territory and power in Syria and Iraq, on the other hand it is also more powerful international players that have their own interests in the region.

It has become quite obvious that a large part of the US government is still aiming for regime change in Syria. However, Russia has now intervened and strengthened the Syrian government's position on the international level. The US/NATO forces are facing a tougher fight than they probably expected at first. We can only hope that the conflict won't escalate into a full-blown war. Of course, we the people should do everything in our power to prevent this.

In conclusion, while the Syrian Army is gaining ground and ISIS is losing, it doesn't look like the overall conflict will be ending any time soon. It will be interesting to see the developments of the region in the near future, as the defeat of ISIS in its current form will be an important point from which every big player on the chessboard has to determine its strategy for the new situation.

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Thanks for the update, personally I think the US should completely pull out of Syria, they can handle it if we just leave them alone.

I agree, the US and NATO coalition is only making things worse over there. And besides that, most people don't want to contribute to endless wars anyway.

for sure, every country that has fought in the middle east has destroyed their economy doing it. These idiot generals need to read the Art of War

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Excellent article to post - thank you.

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