The Bloom Is Off the Rose: ISIL Dream of a Caliphate Is Over

Rasa - The main border crossing between Iraq and Syria, the city of Albu Kamal on the Syrian side and al-Qaim on the Iraqi side, is the last major territorial possession of ISIL and its medieval caliphate. It is also the next big target for both Syria and Iraq’s militaries and their Iranian-Russian allies.

News ID: 434481

Date: 29 October 2017 - 23:54

RNA - Per usual, ISIL is desperately building up its defenses around the area, pushing more forces into the area while, according to Iraqi officials, ISIL leaders are being evacuated to smaller towns inside Syria that they still control. Still, the offensives by allied forces will happen one way or another.

ISIL still holds some territory in Syria, mostly in Deir Ezzur province. Thanks to Iranian military advisors and Russian airpower, they have been losing all the big cities and towns, along the Euphrates River, with Syrian military pushing on the river’s south shore. The Iraqi Air Force has already been dropping leaflets in al-Qaim in anticipation of an attack on that side of the border.

Which means ISIL’s dream of Medieval caliphate is indeed over. It has lost its strongholds in Iraq and Syria, even though the group has no intention to stop operating as a terror organization.

On whether this is the last gasp for ISIL:

The fall of so many cities and towns is the fall of the ISIL ambition to create a caliphate. But ISIL as an organization, as a network of terror operators, might be as strong as ever because of the followers that they have acquired in Europe and the fact that they still get support from Takfiri-Wahhabi groups and clerics inside Saudi Arabia.

On what will happen to ISIL, now that it has lost its base in Iraq and Syria:

There will not be a territorial center. The terrorist group is becoming more diffuse, more decentralized and in that way it is less organized and the scale of its threats might be less serious but the number of threats and the areas they operate in will not diminish as a consequence of this. America wants to stay and entertain and Saudi Arabia has no intention to stop backing the terror organization and other extremist groups on the pretext of “containing” Iran in the region.

On the many fronts in the battle against ISIL:

ISIL has all sorts of sympathizers and individuals in Saudi Arabia and Europe who are persuaded by what they do who are not necessarily coordinated on a daily basis. They don’t need to follow direct orders from one central point. They have to anticipate and take measures on their own, like lone wolves, when it comes to launching terror attacks in Europe and elsewhere.

On how ISIL’s defeat will change Washington’s so-called War on Terror:

America’s bogus War on Terror was misconstrued, misdefined and misapplied, and hence, will continue apace. This has never been a fight against a particular terror group in one place, nor has it ever been primarily a genuine military struggle. The colonial campaign is really a war over preserving the status quo, occupying the Middle East permanently, selling American arms to client states, and protecting Israel whatever the humanitarian costs.

For most, ISIL’s reign of terror is coming to an end as it is unable to defend its territories not because the terror group no longer has Saudi money or American weaponry, but because it can no longer defend itself against the major offensives launched by the anti-partition alliance of Iran, Syria, Iraq, Russia, Hezbollah and Popular Mobilisation Units.

The present iteration of ISIL as a “caliphate” is now drawing to a close. The bloom is off the rose. The US can help by curtailing its campaigns of military destruction and occupation in the region; they gave birth to ISIL in the first place and remain a key wellspring of radicalization and terrorism.

847/940