Burning Raqqa or liberating it?

Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”

The whole world is watching what will happen in Raqqa after the YPG’s general commander’s announcement about the start date of Raqqa battle, the first of April, but Pentagon’s spokesperson said to Reuters:”No decision has been made yet regarding Raqqa battle”.

The first sign of this battle is the parachute landing of 500 US forces along with SDF fighters over Al Hurayra town, as a result of this military operation Tabqa city is now totally besieged in a preparation to enter the city.
Changing the rules of engagement.

Samuel Oakford, in his article in The Foreign Policy published in February 14th 2017, said:” The US forces used poisonous materials in their war against ISIS in 2015 which caused sever disabilities and congenital malformations among the civilians.” And he added:” The US military spokesperson, Josh Jack, has told both Airwars and Foreign Policy that a US warplane A – 10 fired 5265 armor piercing 30 mm rounds contain depleted uranium in November 12th and 26th 2015 in the Eastern Desert of Syria.”.

After winning the elections, US president Donald Trump reiterated in his first speech his intention to eliminate the (Islamic extremism) as he calls it:” We will strengthen old alliances and build new ones and unite the civilized world against the Islamic extremism and we will remove it completely from Earth!”.

Trump issued an executive order on January 29, giving the US military 30 days to put a new strategy to defeat ISIS which he describes as the unprecedented evil, unlike the policy of the previous administration which adopted not to engage the US military in any ground fight with Jihadist and rely on local partners with an aerial support by US warplanes. This was Obama’s policy who promised when he was first elected to bring peace to US after the notorious experience in Iraq.
As a result of this new policy, Pentagon sent a limited number of US soldiers in March 6 in Manbij to separate the different allies, Turkey represented by Euphrates Shield troops and YPG represented by SDF troops. This presence was a public reference that US troops are now on the Syrian areas which just got out of ISIS control. Jeff Davis, US forces spokesperson, said:” The troops deployed there to be a clear sign of deterrence and to keep the focus on fighting the terrorist group”.
Of course, the obvious participation of US Special Forces in Raqqa battle is a literal application of the variables in Trump administration’s policy toward Syria, especially the fight against terrorism and eliminates it under any price without any moral deterrent. According to the statistics of Airwars, which are responsible for counting the number of raids launched by the International Coalition on Syria and Iraq, 22 raids targeted Raqqa in March 23 only.

These raids did not distinguish between military and non military targets; the International coalitional just recently targeted Al Badya School, in Al Mansura near Raqqa and contains displaced families, and lead to more than two hundred causalities.
Civilians are now between the criminal terrorists from a side and the International Coalition’s indiscriminate bombing from the other side. Liberating does not come by burning it and destroying it over its people who have suffered a lot from the terrorist group’s violations and the raids by the Russian and regime warplanes, the International Coalition last campaign comes to add more killing to the endless death sequence.

media activist from the city of Raqqa, student at the Faculty of Law at the University of the Euphrates. Director of the Media Office of Raqqa, founding member of "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently", founding member of the documentary project of "Sound and Picture". I work in documenting violations committed by Assad's regime and ISIS group and extremist organizations inside the city of Raqqa, as I work in programming, design and visual media. I hold a certificate of coach in digital security, and a certificate of journalist coach, and a certificate in documenting violations against human rights, and a certificate in electronic advocacy. I underwent a training under the supervision of "Cyber-Arabs" in collaboration with the Institute for War and Peace "IWPR", about the management of electronic websites and leadership of advocacy campaigns, and a training of press photography under the supervision of the photojournalist "Peter Hove Olesen".