NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday hailed the recapture of Raqa from the Islamic State group as an "important milestone" in the fight against the extremists.
The de facto Syrian capital of the "caliphate" controlled by IS, also known as ISIS, fell to US-backed forces on Tuesday, sinking another nail into the coffin of the jihadist group's self-declared state, which has collapsed in the face of offensives in Syria and Iraq.
"I congratulate the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS on the liberation of Raqa, an important milestone in our fight against ISIS," Stoltenberg said in a statement after talks with Brett McGurk, the White House's envoy to the multinational coalition fighting IS, at NATO headquarters.
"ISIS has lost more than 85 percent of the territory it once held, and is on the run, but we need to keep up our joint efforts to defeat terrorism."
NATO contributes AWACS surveillance planes to the coalition but does not have combat troops on the ground.
Raqa was one of the most emblematic IS bastions, at the heart of both its military operations and its propaganda.
Several of the most high-profile attacks IS claimed in the West, including the 2015 massacres in Paris, are believed to have been at least partly planned in the city.
It was liberated by fighters from the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from the US-led coalition, after four months of fighting.
Israel jails Arab Israeli for joining IS
Jerusalem (AFP) Oct 19, 2017 –
An Israeli court sentenced an Israeli Arab man to more than five years in jail on Thursday for joining the Islamic State jihadist group, a statement said.
The district court in the northern Israeli city of Haifa said in a statement that it sentenced Wissam Zbedat to 70 months in prison and a 14,000 shekel ($4,000) fine for travelling to Syria to fight for IS.
The prosecution accused him and his wife Sabreen of leaving the country in 2015 with their three children then aged three, six and eight for Syria to join IS.
Police said Sabreen had convinced her husband to join the group.
The couple, who come from Sakhnin in northern Israel, received religious instruction and military training.
Wissam later became a fighter for the group, including in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where he was injured in the leg.
Following the injury and a bombing campaign by the international coalition fighting IS, the family decided to leave, but were arrested in Turkey and returned to Israel in September 2016. The children have been put into the care of relatives.
In March, Sabreen was sentenced to 50 months in prison.
It was the first known case of an entire Israeli Arab family joining up with the jihadist organisation, the Shin Bet domestic security agency said.
Shin Bet has said it estimates that around 50 Israeli Arabs have travelled to Iraq or Syria to fight with IS.
By the end of 2016, 83 people — most of them Arab Israelis — were behind bars in Israel as suspected IS sympathisers, up from just 12 a year earlier, according to Haaretz newspaper.
The Shin Bet has said IS sympathisers among the Jewish state's Arab minority pose a "serious security threat" for Israel.
Arab Israelis are descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land following the creation of Israel in 1948.
They account for some 17.5 percent of the population of eight million.
IS 'death spiral' most dangerous part of fight for US coalition
Experts on the Middle East, terrorism and the Islamic State say that while the terrorist organization is in a "death spiral," the U.S.-led coalition battling the group is likely entering its most dangerous phase.
The early signs of victory are beginning to circulate as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, drive IS out of its proclaimed capi … read more
