Islamic State goes underground in Syrian stronghold

Islamic State has gone underground in its Syrian stronghold since President Barack Obama authorized U.S. air strikes on the group in Syria, disappearing from the streets, redeploying weapons and fighters, and cutting down its media exposure.

In the city of Raqqa, 450 km northeast of Damascus, residents say Islamic State has been moving equipment every day since Obama signaled on Sept. 11 that air attacks on its forces could be expanded from Iraq to Syria. Islamic State activists who typically answer questions on the Internet have been off line since then. Its leaders have not given a direct response to Obama: his speech last week was not mentioned in a video released on Saturday showing the beheading of British hostage David Haines by an Islamic State militant.

As the United States tries to assemble a coalition to fight Islamic State, the jihadist group appears to be trying to leave as much uncertainty as possible about its strategy.

Facing U.S. air strikes in Iraq, Islamic State fighters abandoned heavy weaponry that made them easy targets and tried to blend into civilian areas. In anticipation of similar raids in Syria, the group may already be doing the same.

In Raqqa, the group has evacuated buildings it was using as offices, redeployed its heavy weaponry, and moved fighters’ families out of the city.
“They are trying to keep on the move,” said one Raqqa resident, communicating via the Internet and speaking on condition of anonymity because of safety fears. “They have sleeper cells everywhere,” he added.

“They only meet in very limited gatherings.”

The top U.S. general promised on Tuesday “a persistent and sustainable campaign” against Islamic State in Syria, and Washington is probably already watching its positions in Raqqa. Obama approved surveillance flights over Syria last month, and footage taken by activists earlier this month appeared to show an American-made drone over the city.

The militants are not dormant; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence in the country’s civil war, said they had shot down a Damascus government war plane near Raqqa using anti-aircraft guns.

However, another resident said: “Islamic State is now carrying out tactical defensive moves by relocating their assets to different places so that their heavy weaponry is not all concentrated in one place.”

Raqqa and the surrounding province is Islamic State’s main base in Syria. Last month, its fighters drove the final government forces from the area when it seized an air base.

Since seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul in June, the group has also extended its control over neighboring Deir al-Zor province, which borders Iraq. Making good on its promise to redraw the Middle East, Islamic State has declared a new province including territory on both sides of the frontier.
(Reuters).