jihadis inside the caliphate’s self-declared
capital, Raqqa. At the same time, Syrian
government troops, backed by Russian
air power, launched their own o ensive
to push through the country’s desert
region to reach the Euphrates and mop
up the remaining IS pockets left in Syria.
Air power — Russian, Syrian, Turkish
and US-coalition — is playing a crucial
role in the nal battles to defeat what
is left of IS. While all the air forces in the
theater share a common enemy, there
is little political agreement between
the parties, and so co-ordinating air
and land operations is still fraught
with tension.Siege of Raqqa
By mid-October Kurdish ghters had
cleared more than 85 per cent of Raqqa
of IS thanks to round-the-clock air
support, artillery and rocket re from
the US-led coalition forces. Daily US-
coalition strike reports painted a picture
of intensive bombing, with more than
50 air strikes taking place across Syria
and Iraq on many days. More than half
of these were claimed to be in Raqqa
itself. No journalists were allowed to lm
the highly secretive US special forces
units operating alongside the Kurdish
People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the
rubble of Raqqa, but it was possible toengineers in the heart of Syria’s civil
would have scarcely been considered
believable two or three years ago. Yet
the use of improvised drone bombers
is now a regular occurrence in the
Syrian war zone and IS drone engineers
and operators are high on the US-led
coalition’s target list.End game for
Islamic State?
For more than three years, IS ghters
have spread mayhem and terror in
Syria, Iraq and further a eld. A US-led
international coalition was mobilized to
ght the jihadi group after it threatened
to capture Baghdad and seize Kurdistan
in the summer of 2014. Separately,
Russian, Iranian and Syrian government
forces launched a drive to take down
IS within central and eastern Syria.
Meanwhile, Turkish-backed rebel groups
attacked the group in north-west Syria.
This multi-pronged pressure resulted
in IS su ering major reverses during- Iraqi troops, backed by US-led air
power, have driven the jihadis from Iraq’s
second city, Mosul. In Syria, Kurdish-led
militia ghters of the Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) swept IS from much of
northern and eastern Syria before
successfully besieging a large group of
Right: A screen
shot from the
commercial
drone attack on
a Syrian ferry.
Tim Ripley via
internet
Left: US
Army AH-64
Apaches of
the Combined
Joint Task Force
Operation
‘Inherent
Resolve’ at
a forward
operating
base. Apaches
regularly struck
targets around
Raqqa. US Army
Below: Russia
has deployed
MiG-29SMTs to
Khmeimim air
base. They have
been engaging
targets with
unguided 500kg
iron bombs.
Russian MoDFIGHTING ISLAMIC STATE | COMBAT REPORT
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