RNA - The Iraqi Army has also taken control of Al Qadisiyah and Al Bakr districts to the east of the city among "intense" fighting and suicide bombings. But that's not all. Days of ISIL and other terrorist groups are also numbered in neighbouring Syria. The Syrian Army has given Jeish al-Fatah terrorists in Eastern Aleppo city a 24-hour ultimatum to lay down arms and leave. The army has warned terrorists of incoming attacks after the deadline.
So what does this all mean? ISIL as a foreign-backed fighting force is almost gone. And these are also huge losses for its co-founders that once dreamed of partitioning Iraq and Syria on sectarian lines, i.e., Saudi Arabia, the United States and the mere extras.
Of course, as always the Western media propaganda machine claims that what we have seen over the last few weeks is all because of the US coordinating the offensives in both Syria and Iraq, stopping ISIL from being able to rush troops back and forth, and removing the advantage of interior lines. This is rubbish.
In the Mosul operation, it is the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi, or National Mobilisation Units, that are stopping ISIL fighters from escaping to Syria’s Raqqa and Deir Ezzur. They are also the same forces that complain the warplanes of the US-led coalition "are allowing ISIL military convoys flee Mosul in Nineveh province to Syria" without being harmed. They have even documented that the coalition fighter jets don't attack the ISIL convoys that are escaping from Mosul.
What's more, the border is under the full control of Syria, Iraq and Russia, and not the US and its allies. Quite the contrary, the US and its proxy forces are busy making a push on ISIL’s self-declared capital Raqqa in a desperate attempt to turn it into a de facto capital for “moderate” opposition forces that are finding real trouble at this point in Eastern Aleppo. They know and their co-founders know that at some point they will have to just give up the idea of fighting, go into hiding, or flee to Raqqa and beyond.
These are the real facts on the ground. These are also two huge losses for ISIL, Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, “moderates”, and their co-founders. That's because in Syria in particular, the liberation of Eastern Aleppo will pave the way for the next big push: the Raqqa operation and other minor offensive operations to keep ISIL and terrorist groups from having a chance to regroup.
Silly how pundits after pundits in the West still claim that US air power and special operation forces are out in full support of these operations – with great care for civilian population. Far from it. In Syria, it is Russian air power that is helping national ground forces to drive off rebel forces from Aleppo. In Mosul, it is also Iraqi fighter jets that help national armed forces to prevent ISIL from re-positioning both their combat capabilities and personnel, either within the city or outside.
Even armchair warriors at the Pentagon agree. They say more than twice as many civilians have been killed by US airstrikes than was previously believed. They reveal that their airstrikes have killed estimated 64 civilians in the past 12 months. The figures are still far lower than those documented by Amnesty International, which says around 300 civilians have been killed by US-directed coalition airstrikes in only 11 cases that have gone under investigation in Syria alone.
Obviously, the US and the mere extras are not involved in the ongoing efforts to squeeze ISIL and other extremists out of their strongholds in Iraq and Syria. They might have bombed ISIL positions here and there, but these are not real military victories just PR wins. And this has not been pretty. Thanks to the meddlesome US-led air power, the fights for Mosul and Syria's Kurdish cities have been bloody affairs where many civilians have paid the price. The War Party’s Raqqa push won't be any different. They stage few combat sorties, but kill civilians; in their other flights they reveal the position of the soldiers of the light to the devils of darkness.
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