IS families relocate from Syria to Iraq post-air strikes

And after the Islamic State group attacks in Paris last Friday, France has intensified their attacks on Raqqa, which is said to be the extremists’ capital. IS fighters are hiding in civilian neighborhoods and preventing anyone from fleeing, former residents say.

The French attacks highlight a limitation of air power, said Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based expert on military issues in the Middle East. Rarely is it enough to subdue enemies, he said. Abandoned ISIL (Islamic State group) posts were targeted at the entrance of the city, along with ISIL checkpoints and several other points.

“Airstrikes can be effective, but you need a ground component to go along with them”.

A U.S.-led coalition has attacked the group at its strongholds in eastern Syria and northern Iraq for more than a year.

Russia, which began its strikes in Syria at the end of September, has always said its main target is Islamic State.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said yesterday that Isil had started moving the family members of foreign fighters across the border to Mosul, apparently claiming that Raqqa was no longer safe.

The monitoring group said more than 30 Islamic State fighters in Raqqa had been killed during airstrikes in recent days, and family members of the group’s leaders left the city.

The Russian strikes on Raqqa came as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for what the Kremlin said was a bomb that brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt and to intensify air strikes against Islamists in Syria. “They hide among the people, they run into houses”, he said.

Isil maintains a tight stranglehold over the flow of information outside of territory it controls, and it was not possible to immediately verify the claims of movements to Mosul, a city that is regularly bombed by coalition forces. French defense officials said the United States had stepped up intelligence sharing, enabling Paris to identify more specific targets.