ISIL losing control of key cities across Iraq and Syria

Insight

Palmyra is just the most recent key territory lost by ISIL. CCTV America’s Jim Spellman reports.

Last week Iraqi security forces scored a major win in the fight against ISIL, taking the strategically important city of Rutba.

There are now about 3,500 U.S. troops in Iraq, plus support personnel. They are focused on training and assisting Iraqi forces and aiming for wins in key cities.

Coalition forces have made steady progress against ISIL over the last two years. Airstrikes and ground attacks have pushed ISIL back and, according to the U.S. military, the flow of foreign fighters joining ISIL has been cut by 90 percent – from about 2,000 a month to just 200 a month over the last year.

But ISIL still controls major cities including Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, which Iraqi forces hope to take by the end of the year.

“These attacks appear to be a shift in ISIL’s tactics. Over the last 6 months our enemy has suffered a string of defeats, because the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) is proving increasingly effective, ISIL wants to throw punches that land. To do this they appeared to have chosen to revert to some of their terrorist roots,” Steve Warren, US Army Colonel said.

And ISIL’s terror attacks beyond its front lines have become more common and deadly, especially in Europe, even as it loses territory on the ground in Iraq and Syria.


Analyst Mubaraz Ahmed on ISIL losing territory in Iraq and Syria

Losing territory is one thing and the ability to wage deadly attacks, is another.

CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar spoke to Mubaraz Ahmed and asked if he thinks ISIL is waging more attacks to divert attention from its losses.

He’s an analyst at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Centre on Religion and Geopolitics.

Follow Asieh Namdar on Twitter@asiehnamdar