After a fierce battle that was in continuation since June this year, US-backed fighting groups– generally known as Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militia– have defeated ISIS in its declared capital, Raqqa. The defeat inflicted upon the ISIS can be seen as a significant victory against the terrorist organization. With the fall of the de facto capital, where ISIS once staged euphoric parades after gaining swift wins in 2014, this momentous loss is a symbol of the group’s dwindling fortunes.
What explains this rise and fall? An explanation can be sought in the fact that its enemies on all sides surround it. To the Western North, ISIS is fighting rebel groups, and the Russian backed Syrian Army. It is also busy fighting Turkish forces, and US-backed Peshmergas in the North. In the Eastern-South is the US-backed Iraqi army that freed Mosul from its control. Mosul was the biggest city under ISIS’s control.
The only tangible asset that ISIS owns, in comparison to the former leader of global jihad, Al-Qaeda, is the territory. But the defeats the group is facing recently, primarily losing Mosul and Raqqa, have shrunk the group’s hold on land in the Middle East, and with the latest defeat that the terrorist outfit suffered, i.e., fall of Raqqa, the collapse of ISIS caliphate is visible than ever before.
The fact that the group is losing the territory, upon which it exercised its control on once, reveals that the terrorist outfit is also lacking coordination and cohesion. The inspiration it once provided to different militant groups is working no more after losing land rapidly.
Lacking geographical strongholds like Mosul and Raqqa, the chances are that the outfit will lose manpower and the allegiances it once used to enjoy. We have seen it recently; militant groups pledging their loyalties back to Taliban as soon as these groups realized that ISIS contains no more luster and charm. Could this mean the dethroning of ISIS?