Activists say abandoned ISIL bases hit in city suburbs with no civilians or fighters as France carries out air strikes.

Diana Al Rifai | 17 Nov 2015 15:05 GMT

French defence officials say that, for the second time in less than 24 hours, fighter jets have targeted Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria.

Ten Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters carried out the raid early in the morning, dropping 16 bombs, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, as France hits back at ISIL in retaliation for Friday’s Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

“Both targets were hit and destroyed simultaneously,” the ministry said.

“Conducted in coordination with US forces, the raid was aimed at sites identified during reconnaissance missions previously carried out by France.”

On Sunday, the French defence ministry said 30 air strikes destroyed an ISIL training camp and munitions dump in Raqqa.

However, a media activist in Raqqa, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that French air strikes had targeted abandoned ISIL bases in the suburbs of the city where there are no civilians or ISIL fighters. 

“It has been two insane nights. Abandoned ISIL posts were targeted at the entrance of the city, along with ISIL checkpoints and several other points. Electricity and water have been cut off as supply lines were hit too.

“We can confirm that there were no civilians killed or injured in the latest French air strikes.

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“People are horrified and everyone here lives in fear. We are sure that several ISIL fighters at the checkpoints were killed in the air strikes.”

The Pentagon said that over the past few days it had also bombed ISIL posts in Iraq and Syria.

On Monday, the US-led coalition’s warplanes struck ISIL targets in Raqqa and several posts were destroyed, the US defence department said on its website.

France is part of the coalition, which was launched in September 2014, but conducted its first air strike in Syria only in September 2015.

‘Raqqa is devastated’

The Syrian activist in Raqqa said that in the past few days Russian air strikes had caused the most destruction.

“Last week, Russian air strikes destroyed one of the main bridges in the city in addition to the national hospital. Most hospitals in the city have been destroyed in Raqqa,” he said.

“Russian air strikes have resulted in so much destruction. If these countries wanted to bomb the heartland of ISIL, they could have done so. But they still have not targeted the group’s most important bases.

“This is what we do not understand. The targets bombed by French warplanes were mostly abandoned by ISIL fighters.

“The US, Russia and France are all bombing Syria. How many more countries want to bomb us?

“Raqqa is devastated. Raqqa has endured the unbearable and we live in fear under ISIL’s dictatorship.

“A lot of people fled the the city. In fact, most refugees heading to Europe are from Raqqa. That is how desperate they are to leave here. People are fed up here and just want to live normal lives.

“Our lives are all under threat. ISIL controls every aspect of our lives and we are not allowed to expose the truth.

“Not everyone who lives in Raqqa approves of ISIL. I am a citizen of Raqqa and I refused to leave my hometown just like many others did.

“What the world needs to know is that we live under ISIL control on the ground, and constant air strikes from the sky. We are trapped,” the activist said.

Separately, the anti-ISIL group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered said on Sunday that overnight air strikes hit a stadium, a museum, several clinics, a hospital and a governmental building.

The group told Al Jazeera that no civilians were hurt or injured in any of the latest French air strikes.

“Of course we do not like to see people afraid of air strikes and explosions, but we support any actions that will take ISIL out of Raqqa,” the group said on its Twitter account.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said activists reported hearing explosions in Raqqa resulting from air strikes.

The activists’ network said no civilian death toll has been recorded due to the strikes.

Source: Al Jazeera

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• Econdemocracy

  Al Jazeera cries crocodile tears over possible civilians hurt here while funding for years the mass murder of Syrians..

  If you don’t: Al Jazeera being “Doha-based state-funded broadcaster owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is partly funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar” Or in plain English, the U.S.-backed Qatari dictatorship that along with the Saudi dictatorship, have been trying to overthrow the secular Syrian government by force by funding jihadists.

  So they “don’t necessarily” want ISIS to win (a few elements do…mostly the rulers don’t) they are happy if non-ISIS but brutal jihadis “friendly with” their Saudi/Qatari dictatorships are the ones to overthrow the Syrian government. Fortunately the Qatari/Saudi/Turkish plans are starting to unravel quite notably.

  This “anonymous” source is telling them that they know better than Russia where the main ISIS targets are….sure. Then call Russia and tell them, or call France and tell France since the anonymous source claims France misses it all too (actually in the case of France – the entire Western “coalition” has been deliberately, until recently, not hurting ISIS “too much” to keep it strong enough to brutalize Syria enough to weaken the secular Syrian government they are trying to overthrow. But Russia deliberately being gentle on ISIS? That’s a laugh. At most they are holding back until a more strategic time to attack. More likely the latest military intel is more correct with Russian military leaders than with one person on the ground. But be my guest, call Russia and inform them of this huge ISIL assets that you think Russia is forgetting to bomb..)

  Syrian Observatory for Human Rights? So-called “observatory is UK based mostly one-man show funded by the usual suspects and is pretty open from early on about what the “observatory” stands for: trying to violently overthrow the secular Syrian government.

  But a small fig leaf of fair reporting is something Al Jazeera likes so they do allow near the end this quote: “Of course we do not like to see people afraid of air strikes and explosions, but we support any actions that will take ISIL out of Raqqa,” by others in Raqqa.

  “The activists’ network said no civilian death toll has been recorded due to the strikes.” a fact other Qatar-dictatorship funded outlets will forget..in fact one of them already is crying crocodile tears for Raqqa’s poeple, in reality, sad that their latest regime change efforts are being exposed for what it is, foreign funded and foreign armed jihadists trying to overthrow the Syrian secular government to make the middle east more “stable” and more “safe” for the brutal U.S.-backed oil-rich (steal their own people’s oil and gas) dictatorships like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc

  Nov 22, 2015, 5:08 pm 0 Reply