| Follow-up from yesterday afternoon's post. |
“The raid ... including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the statement said, adding that the mission had taken place this evening.
The operation, carried out in coordination with US forces, struck a command centre, recruitment centre for jihadists, a munitions depot, and a training camp for fighters. The sites targeted had previously been identified on earlier reconnaissance flights, the statement said.
| That's a good start. Now follow up with a few hundred more strikes like this. And get the French special forces in there slitting throats. And the Foreign Legion to grab a few outposts from which to help the special forces do their jobs better. |
| That's not 'massive' even by today's standards. But if it's day 1 of a decade long plan to extirpate Islamist terrorism, great. But I fear Mr. Hollande will tomorrow say "see, we did something about it" and then be done. |
Information from inside Syria suggests the bombings had cut water and electricity supplies.
Activists in Raqqa have said the bombings have caused “panic” in the city.
Raqqa is claimed as the de facto capital of the IS ‘caliphate’, and has come increasingly under the control of the terrorist organisation since 2013. The city has hollowed out under IS rule - the population has fallen from about one million to 400,000 - and IS has imposed an increasingly harsh regime on those who remain.