Airstrikes leave 32 jihadists dead
Print Edition
AT least 32 Islamic State group fighters were killed yesterday in apparent United States-led coalition raids on Syria as President Bashar al-Assad slammed Britain’s decision to participate in the airstrikes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said at least 32 fighters were killed in 15 airstrikes on the group’s stronghold of Raqa province in northern Syria.
The monitor’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said at least 40 jihadists were wounded in the strikes, which hit IS headquarters and bases to the north, east and southeast of provincial capital Raqa city.
The city is the de facto Syrian capital of the group, which calls the large stretches of territory it controls in Syria and neighboring Iraq an Islamic “caliphate.”
Abdel Rahman said the casualty figures were collected from a single hospital and the toll from the airstrikes could rise.
Raqa is frequently the target of airstrikes by the US-led coalition, as well as the Syrian air force, and Russian warplanes that began an air campaign in late September.
The US coalition has been targeting IS in Syria since last September, expanding a campaign that began with raids in Iraq. Its operations have expanded further in recent days, partly in response to the deadly attacks in Paris claimed by IS.
Britain voted on Wednesday to join the coalition’s strikes in Syria, after a debate in the country’s parliament and with the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron.
German lawmakers on Friday also approved plans to join the military action against the group in Syria.
In an interview published yesterday in Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper, Assad slammed London’s decision to begin strikes in Syria as “illegal” and said its actions would cause “terrorism” to spread.
“It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so (ago),” he was quoted as saying.
Terror, he said, is like a cancer that needs to be tackled with a “comprehensive” strategy, which would involve working with troops on the ground.
“You can’t cut out part of the cancer. You have to extract it. This kind of operation is like cutting out part of the cancer. That will make it spread faster,” he said.
“You cannot defeat (IS) through airstrikes alone. You cannot defeat them without cooperation with forces on the ground. You cannot defeat them if you do not have buy-in from the general public and the government,” he said.
“They are going to fail again.”
Britain began its bombing campaign early on Thursday, hitting an oilfield held by IS just hours after the parliamentary vote.
Damascus has repeatedly slammed the US-led coalition as ineffective and illegal, saying it cannot uproot IS without coordinating with the Syrian government.
Russia began its strikes with the government’s permission and has coordinated its raids with regime forces.
It said its raids are focused on IS and other “terrorists,” but other rebels and their backers accuse Moscow of targeting moderate and Islamist opposition fighters over jihadists.
IS rules the territory under its control with an iron fist, brutally punishing those who challenge its authority or violate its harsh interpretation of Islam.
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