What's Next For ISIS?
U.S. backed forces have pushed ISIS out of Raqqa, so what is next for the group?
The Syrian city of Raqqa has been the claimed capital of ISIS since 2014. As of October 17, 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the U.S., have taken full control of Raqqa after four months of fighting.
The city is in the process of being cleared of traps and bombs left behind by ISIS that were used in battle.
According to The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, based in the UK, 3,250 people have been killed in the attacks and U.S. led airstrikes in the last five months. 1,130 of these people were civilians. Hundreds are still missing and could be buried in the rubble that was once their home town.
The number of ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq was estimated at about 30,000 at its peak. Now the number of ISIS fighters is estimated to be at about 6,500.
ISIS’s defeat in Raqqa was potentially its biggest setback since the group began. No one can really be sure what the group’s next big move will be, besides regaining lost territory. According to Army Col. Pat Work who is a U.S. advisor in Iraq, "It wants to hold terrain, dominate populations, administer its deformed politics, and it wants to be able to expand continuously."
ISIS will now have to take over a new city as its capital. The U.S. and SDF will do everything it can to not let the group get back lost territory and stop ISIS from getting more powerful. In the coming years, SDF hopes to totally eliminate ISIS from Iraq and Syria and rebuild cities to what they were before.
