Eliminating IS secret rebellion may take years

NEWS DESK

The editor of the external affairs of Times newspaper of Washington Ben Wolfang said, "IS may have lost the vast majority of the land it once occupied in Syria and Iraq, but its total defeat as a terrorist gang and the removal of its sleeper cells that spread in the Middle East and Africa could take years."

"The final victory is still far away," the writer quoted from the general inspector of the Pentagon in a comprehensive review on Monday.

The report said that IS still maintains its presence not only in Iraq and Syria but also in Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The report concluded that IS had evolved from a terrorist entity controlling the land to a rebellion that runs many secret cells around the world.

While the administration of the US President Donald Trump has issued mixed signals about US Forces' commitment to combat and stay in the area, the report says, "The process of purging terrorists from remote areas seems difficult, and the elimination of IS in the rural areas of Iraq and Syria could take years."

In recent months, the Pentagon has presented two separate accounts about the battle against IS which began in 2014 in that era of the President Obama. When the US-led international operation began, vast tracts of land throughout Iraq and Syria were under the control of IS, and the so-called capital of the Caliphate was established in the Syrian city of Raqqa which was liberated by SDF in October 17, 2017.

Defense Ministry's officials said that IS has been regionally defeated and has almost lost all the lands used to be used by it in the past as a base of operations.

But the officials also said that turning IS into a secret terrorist group was a special and major challenge. The restoration of the lands from IS was in the result of a continuous bombing campaign led by the United States and ground operations led by our partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces.

"There are significant challenges to develop capable and self-sufficient security forces in Iraq and Syria, and there are still questions about how long it will take to train the forces capable of preventing the re-emergence of IS," he said.

The report said, "There are also major challenges to the US efforts to treat the non-military issues such as strengthening the democratic governance, civil society and the stability of liberated areas. The continuing political instability in Iraq and the civil war in Syria are also complicating the efforts to counter IS' rebellion.

It noted that the Syrian Democratic Forces have halted al-Jazeera Tempest campaign to fight IS mercenaries in their last strongholds in the desert of Deir ez-Zor, east of the Euphrates River after Turkey launched attacks on positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the border areas.

Officials in the north and east of Syria confirmed that the Turkish attacks came to ease pressure on IS, and this is an attempt to revive it again, especially that the Turkish attacks' coincidence with IS' counter-attacks confirmed the extent of coordination between Turkey and IS.
D.H

ANHA