Baladi News – Al-Raqqa (Abdulaziz Al-Khalifa)
Last Thursday, International Coalition war planes dropped paper slips on Al-Raqqa, the main stronghold of ISIS in Syria, warning citizens to leave the city. Simultaneously, the spokesperson of the Kurdish- majority Syrian Democratic Forces militia, Talal Silo, announced that the forces are preparing to wage an attack to one of the organization’s strongholds in Al-Raqqa, Deir Al-zour or Aleppo northern countryside.
Head of the local council of Al-Raqqa city, Saad Al Showish, said to Baladi News that the city includes more than 600 thousands civilians as well as 30 thousands who fled Palmyra. Those are likely to leave the city to other ISIS-held regions, because the international coalition is not serious about safeguarding them according to the speaker.
Al Showish clarified that to protect the lives of the civilians of Al-raqqa, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units controlling the areas north to the city must allow the citizens to resort to relatives there and come back to their city later.
He also stressed that it is better to utilize coalition Arab forces, rather than the Kurdish ones, to conduct the campaign on the city as a guarantee for civilians’ lives and properties, showing concerns that the Kurdish Democratic Union Party may annex the city to its federation in the north in case of controlling it.
Demographic change
Furat Al Wafa, an activist from Al-raqqa, considers the warning of the coalition forces for the citizens to leave the city as a part of the demographic change campaign that the Kurdish units, constituting the majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces militia, are conducting in the north of Syria.
The activist indicated that the coalition forces are demanding an “impossible thing, because the coalition knows that ISIS prevents citizens to leave as can be seen in its media statements. He also emphasized that “the best way is to use Arabic revolutionary forces that treat civilians well, rather than Kurdish forces that would expel them as they had done in Tell Abyad upon controlling it in 2015.
A black fate
Syrian journalist, Amin Al Furati, does not agree with these opinion, expressing that the warning of the coalition forces is not but a media war that aims to destabilize ISIS organization from within by sending a message that the battle for the city is imminent. He also considered the warning as a deceiving attempt to show its concern about people’s lives, despite its massacres against civilians since the beginning of its intervention in Syria in 2014.
Regarding the coming battle, the journalist expects long fighting, because ISIS would not easily surrender the city that it took two years ago, referring to its preparations for the battle and anticipating a black fate for the city.
Al Furati considered it unreasonable to think about a possible annexation of the city by the Kurdish Democratic Union to its federation due to the fact that the cities, towns, and villages of Al-raqqa are inhabited by Arabs only, and those refuse any subordination to a Kurdish entity at any cost, especially that the party has a black human rights record.
It is noteworthy that the former US ambassador in Syria, Robert Ford, accused “the Kurdish units” of pushing civilians towards ISIS, indicating that in some cases, refugees escape to ISIS rather than Kurdish held areas.