#RAQQA

[toria-kvarz]

🇷🇺: я нарисовала Ракку из Союза Серокрылых

🇬🇧: I drew Rakka from Haibane Renmei

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Oved Lobel

In Iraq, the combination of militias and security forces that liberated Mosul from IS, backed by US and allied airpower and artillery, were fighting to take back their own city, with a population almost entirely hostile to IS. They had around a year to plan the operation, had all the initiative and were under no domestic or international political or time constraints to complete the operation within a given period. Moreover, the Iraqi security forces lost more than 1,200 men in the battle, and perhaps more than 8,000.

Israel, by contrast, had approximately a week to plan an incredibly complex operation, having been caught entirely off-guard by the Hamas invasion on October 7. The IDF is fighting to remove a terrorist regime from territory Israel does not control and where the population is almost entirely hostile to Israel and supportive of Hamas.

In addition, Israel cannot afford an operation that lasts as long as the battle for Mosul did, nor can it afford the number of casualties sustained by Iraqi security forces around Mosul or US partner forces in Raqqa. The reason for this is simple: because of Israel’s conscript and reservist system, its soldiers are drawn from its workforce. On top of that, there is an insurmountable political and social imperative in Israeli society to preserve the lives of soldiers insofar as possible.

Internationally, meanwhile, pressure on Israel to either finish the war as quickly as possible or simply halt it entirely, regardless of the outcome, has been building since even before Israel launched its ground operation.

There are also substantive differences, both tactically and numerically, between Hamas and IS, including the reality that Hamas had 16 years to build up its much more impressive and embedded military infrastructure in civilian areas.

Finally, a key difference between the battlefields, one of many, is that the US and its partners on the ground were able to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from both Raqqa and Mosul before and during the battles, leaving far smaller civilian populations trapped in the cities while also reducing the battlespace by allowing IS operatives to leave the cities. IS eventually melted away and transitioned back into an insurgency.

In Gaza, where Hamas utilises every inch to attack Israel and is unwilling and unable to leave the battlefield like IS did, it is unfortunately impossible for civilians to flee to fully safe areas. They cannot exit into the Sinai both because Egypt will not allow it and because the international community has decided that temporarily displacing Palestinian civilians out of Gaza is worse than keeping them as human shields for Hamas.

Given all these factors, one would expect an Israeli operation necessarily to be more destructive over a shorter timeframe and to result in more civilian casualties. However, this indicates little about the conduct of the war.

[postcard-from-the-past]

The Euphrates River in the Raqqa province of northern Syria

French vintage postcard

[heretic-child]

“We were like the living dead,” said the women of Raqqa while talking about the period when Raqqa was controlled by ISIS, adding, “The liberation of Raqqa was like a rebirth for us.”

This week marks the sixth anniversary of the liberation of Raqqa from ISIS. Long live the martyrs!

[arabicfornerds]

How do you pronounce Allah correctly? The word Allah (الله) is a special word in many ways. Especially the pronunciation can be tricky if you don't know the rules. Here is how it works. https://arabic-for-nerds.com/islam/pronunciation-allah/?feed_id=4906

[atsvensson]

Dom i mål om folkmord och brott mot mänskligheten

Dom i mål om folkmord och brott mot mänskligheten. Stockholms tingsrätt har dömt en 52-årig kvinna för folkmord, brott mot mänskligheten och grov krigsförbrytelse begångna i Raqqa i Syrien under vintern och våren 2015. Straffvärdet för gärningarna har bedömts motsvara fängelse i sexton år. Med hänsyn till tidigare utdömd påföljd har fängelsestraffets längd bestämts till tolv år. Målsägandena har…

[sdotbailey]

Really fantastic book I just wrapped up. Incredible words by Marwan and the illustrations by Molly are on point, as usual. Highly recommended, especially now that al-Assad is gone.

[kristinhelberg]

Interview SWR1 Leute 19.12.2024

(41´48 Min.)

[glidingsilvery]

Escape from Raqqa/Exfiltrés (2019)

[davidbyrne]

Swann Arlaud in Exfiltrés (Escape from Raqqa) dir. Emmanuel Hamon

[tyliocellier]

Swann Arlaud in Exfiltrés (2019)

[mourning-again-in-america]

according to the UK about munition #'s during in the battles of Mosul and Raqqa against ISIS:

However, a key finding of Airwars is that the Coalition did not significantly modulate its use of explosive weapons once operations focused on Raqqa – even though the implications for civilians of high intensity bombardments should by then have been better understood. According to the Coalition, around 29,000 munitions were fired into Mosul between October 2016 and July 2017 – an average of around 3,222 per month. This does not account for munitions fired by Iraqi forces. In Raqqa, the Coalition reported firing some 21,000 munitions between June and October 2017 – an average of around 4,000 per month. That higher rate of fire was directed into a much smaller area than Mosul – leading to proportionally greater destruction in the city overall.

The state of affairs in Palestine

Israel has ordered an evacuation of northern Gaza over 24 hours. This order affects 1.1 million people. The UN believes this is completely impossible.

Israel's president has said that civilians in Gaza are complicit in Hamas' attacks.

Reminder that around 40% of Gaza's population is 14 or younger.

Egypt has closed its border to Gaza refugees.

The US state department has asked diplomats to avoid talking about ceasefires, deescalation, or an end to violence.

The Israeli Air Force claims to have already dropped around 6000 bombs on Gaza in the past week.

For context on that last stat: when the US destroyed Mosul (in a rapid intensification of its air war) it dropped around 500 bombs a week.

More than three quarters of Israelis blame the Israeli government for the attack and ensuing war, and more than half believe Netanyahu must be removed from power.

[dostoyevsky-official]

it is truly almost incomprehensible that israel's week-long bombing of lebanon is the most intense aerial campaign in the 21st century, outpacing the american bombing of raqqa and anything russia has done. it's insane. all carried out with the full agreement of the US government

[kristinhelberg]

Deutschland will Schwerkriminelle und Gefährder nach Syrien abschieben. Im Juli wurde erstmals einem Syrer der subsidiäre Schutz verweigert. Der Mann stammt aus Hasaka im Nordosten – dort kämpfen die Menschen gegen die Terrorgruppe Islamischer Staat und das, was vom einstigen „Kalifat“ übriggeblieben ist.

Reportage Le Monde Diplomatique August 2024

[horsesarecreatures]

Raphael De Sol AD (Sol Debut x HC Abla Raqqas) - Arabian Stallion

[captain-price-unofficially]

A Kurdish fighter of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) holding her position with a sniper rifle during the Battle of Raqqa, Syrian Civil War