US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said, during a joint-press conference with his French counterpart in Paris, that Washington expects the campaigns against the extreme Muslim organization in both Mosul and Raqqa to overlap, signaling that a push to start isolating the group’s de facto capital in Syria may not be far off. Iraqi forces are already ten days into their US-backed campaign to take the city of Mosul from Islamic State. The campaign itself could last weeks or even months, allowing some flexibility in timing.
“We’ve already begun laying the groundwork with our partners to commence the isolation of Raqqa. As we meet here, we’re helping to generate the local forces that will do so. This is one of our campaign plan’s core objectives, destroying ISIL’s parent tumour in Iraq and Syria. And we’re on track to do just that,” said Carter.
The American top defense official added that the Raqqa offensive will require “capable and motivated local forces” to be effective, saying that “a lasting defeat of the Islamic State cannot be achieved by outsiders,” aligning his comments with the Obama Administration’s policy of “leading from behind.”