Raqqa

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged during an interview with CBS This Morning on Tuesday that the Islamic State has regained strength in the Middle East and elsewhere, even though their “caliphate” of stolen Syrian and Iraqi territory has been destroyed.

Amnesty International published a report on Monday accusing the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS of potentially committing war crimes during its assault on the Islamic State capital of Raqqa, Syria.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), in a piece published Thursday, condemned United States-led attacks on the Islamic State in the city of Raqqa that took place nearly one year ago, arguing that America’s intention to remove the terrorist group was a “lie.”

WASHINGTON, DC — Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadist have placed “mines in baby formula” that continue to be used as booby traps scattered across their former “capital” of Raqqa, Syria, warned a former Pentagon official who recently visited the nation.

Contents: With ISIS collapsing, US forces will remain in Syria to restore ‘normalcy’; US warns Assad regime to stay west of Euphrates river

The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported.

International humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders reports that over six weeks after its official liberation, the former Islamic State capital of Raqqa in Syria is still littered with booby traps, land mines, and discarded munitions. Forty-nine patients with blast injuries have been treated at the group’s clinic in Raqqa in just the past ten days.

Contents: BBC reports hoax by US-led coalition about ISIS evacuation from Raqqa Syria; Syria war violence surges as Bashar al-Assad repeats Aleppo genocide in Ghouta; Apparent coup is in progress in Zimbabwe against 93-year-old Robert Mugabe

Steve Bannon told a Hudson Institute audience Monday that Trump’s “America First” stance does not mean that he is an isolationist.

U.S.-allied fighters in Syria have begun the arduous work of documenting the devastation in Raqqa, the former Islamic State “capital” that the jihadist group has left in near-total destruction.

RAQQA, Syria — Tears streaming down her freckled face, 35-year-old Asya took in the shattered glass, gutted storefronts and crumbling cafes — all that remain of her favorite shopping street in Syria’s Raqqa.

The State Department refused Thursday to categorical say that it will oppose associates of President Bashir Assad’s government serving in the new administration of the recently liberated ISIS “capital” of Raqqa, Syria.

Drone footage from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa shows the extent of devastation caused by weeks of fighting between Kurdish-led forces and the Islamic State group and thousands of bombs dropped by the U.S.-led coalition.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, chief strategist for the MAGA Coalition and former Deputy Assistant to President Trump, joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about the latest political news, media bias, the defeat of the Islamic State in Raqqa, and the Kurdish situation in Iraq.

Overjoyed at the city’s liberation from the Islamic State, a woman ripped off the black outer garment she had been forced to wear by the extremist group, as US-backed forces took control of Syria’s Raqqa.

Tuesday was a landmark day in the war against the Islamic State, as both the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria and its Philippine stronghold of Marawi were liberated. Analysts caution that ISIS has not been destroyed, but with these twin defeats, it has been broken down from a terror state back into a terrorist organization.

A major milestone in the defeat of the Islamic State was reached on Tuesday, as the Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that the Syrian city of Raqqa has been liberated from ISIS.

Contents: Mattis and Tillerson work to prevent Iraq vs Kurd military confrontation in Kirkuk; ISIS fighters permitted to leave Raqqa, Syria, with human shields; Syria demands ‘immediately’ pullout of Turkey’s forces from Idlib province

Staring imminent defeat in the face has been a turning point for many Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists in Iraq and Syria, driving hundreds of them to surrender in the liberated town of Hawija while others continue to strive towards martyrdom as their only acceptable end in the group’s “capital” Raqqa.

The Islamic State (ISIS) released a previously unheard audio recording Thursday of its “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has been missing for the better part of a year as ISIS loses territory in Iraq and Syria, fueling speculation that he had been killed.

TEL AVIV — Ahmed al-Saedni, the son of Hisham al-Saedni, a senior Salafist jihadist in Gaza who died in an Israeli airstrike, was killed recently in an airstrike by the international coalition led by the U.S. on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, a senior jihadist figure in the Gaza Strip, Abou Baker al-Maqdesi, told Breitbart Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV — The Islamic State has already lost control of the strategic city of Tal Afar in Iraq and the Syrian army is expected to enter the second-most-important city held by the organization Dir az-Zor, even as Kurdish forces battle IS fighters in their de-facto capital of Raqqa.

WASHINGTON — Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears to be still alive, a top U.S. military commander said Thursday, contradicting Russia’s claims that it probably killed the top counterterror target months ago.

The United Nations called Thursday for a temporary halt in military bombardments around the Islamic State’s stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, to help thousands of civilians flee the terror group’s de facto capital, with a top official saying he “cannot think of a worse place on Earth” than ISIS-held Raqqa.

The Islamic State (ISIS) released a new propaganda video starring an 11-year-old “American” boy Wednesday, according to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

In an interview with Lebanese television on Thursday, a top adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Bouthaina Shaaban, said the Syrian civil war has reached its “penultimate stage” after six long and bloody years. She described the capture of the long-besieged city of Aleppo as a “U-turn” in the conflict.

Contents: Barcelona attackers apparently had multiple coordinated attacks planned; ISIS takes credit for the Barcelona attack; White House officials appear to differ on North Korea military option

TEL AVIV — Amid an intense battle for control of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s so-called Syrian capital, IS has released propaganda photos purporting to show life as normal.

Pushing the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) out of its de-facto capital of Raqqa in Syria may take months, predicted a commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces fighting against the jihadists, according to Reuters.

Contents: Turkey reshuffles top military leaders in preparation for action in Syria; Turkey announces plans for military action against Kurds in northern Syria

BEIRUT — For three years, the Syrian city of Raqqa was the Islamic State’s greatest stronghold, featuring heavily in propaganda and providing a launchpad for attacks carried out around the world.

Syrian government troops advanced overnight against the Islamic State group in the country’s north and center, drawing closer to the key battleground of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said.

Jihadists on Sunday took Idlib in Syria, after rival rebels withdrew, strengthening their grip over the northwestern city and its province, one of the last beyond regime control.

An all-female fighting force from the Yazidi community known as the Sinjar Women’s Units (SWU) announced on Monday that it has joined the battle for Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital in Syria. The Yazidi women made it clear they wished to avenge themselves for the hideous depredations inflicted on them by ISIS.

President Trump has placed a high priority on rebuilding the U.S. military and allowing his commanders to make more calls. So far, in the administration’s first six months, successes have been piling up.

Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is currently alive in Syria, a top Kurdish counterterrorism official recently told Reuters, denying reports from Russia and a Syrian war monitor group claiming otherwise.