{"id":62927,"date":"2015-11-23T09:14:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T14:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=62927"},"modified":"2015-11-23T11:29:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T16:29:12","slug":"kurdsfree-syrian-army-closing-in-on-raqqa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=62927","title":{"rendered":"Kurds\/Free Syrian Army closing in on Raqqa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Isis\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is really great news all around, and some reason for optimism after what happened last week in Mali and Paris. \u00a0Sure, the lone wolf packs that did those attacks will still be able to do attacks, but capturing Raqqa would REALLY hurt ISIS in terms of both having lost their capitol which hurts their PR in terms of viability, and deprives them of a lot of resources.<\/p>\n

First, from CNN<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Raqqa is now firmly in the sights<\/a> not only of the U.S.-led coalition, but also the French and Russian<\/a> militaries. And in a few hours along the front line, you can periodically hear distant thuds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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On the day CNN was at the front, they could have come from some of the four Russian missiles activists’ group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported hit the town, or the four homemade Katyusha rockets they also reported were fired by ISIS.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The CNN piece is really good, but choppy in terms of what I can use in snippets so you should read the whole thing. \u00a0Also, they have great video there, but they don’t have an embed code for me to put it up here. \u00a0Nonetheless, more from that article:<\/span><\/div>\n
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The move towards Raqqa will be difficult, given the open terrain between them and ISIS, but airstrikes will likely assist, if the Kurds ever decide to begin their advance.<\/p>\n

Fighting with the YPG is a new alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces, a collection of Kurdish fighters and other Sunni Arab Syrian armed units.<\/p>\n

Many see the alliance as an American idea to try and secure Sunni Arabs as allies for the Kurdish units, so their advance into the predominantly Sunni areas ISIS currently holds is not seen as a land grab by Kurdish forces seeking to create their own homeland.<\/p>\n

These forces are the recipients of Pentagon training and equipment and are said to be where the 50 American special forces are applying their training efforts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those would be the non-combat\/combat forces that either are or are not boots on ground, depending on who you ask.<\/p>\n

To be honest though, this video is phenomenal as well, and I have no idea who made it. \u00a0I’ve never heard of this media outlet, but it has some pretty high-speed combat footage of the Pesh moving in, and more so it shows just how close they actually are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[NOTE: Apparently this video may be biased an inaccurate. \u00a0I’m not going to take it down to be accused of some ethical violation, and would ask that you watch the CNN report above. \u00a0I can’t vouch for that authenticity either, I’m just taking it at face value since I am roughly 30,000 miles from Raqqa.]<\/p>\n

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