"No mistakes must be allowed": After Mosul, attack the Islamic State in Raqqa

The Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terrorist Islamic State, is the next scene of the international forces' fight against the jihadists after this week's assault on Mosul in Iraq, AFP announced today.

French President Francois Hollande warned today that the jihadists of the Islamic State, which Iraqi and Kurdish forces are attacking in Mosul with the support of the US-led coalition, are already fleeing across the border into Raqqa.

"We cannot allow ourselves to make mistakes in pursuing terrorists who are already leaving Mosul and going to Raqqa," Hollande said, hinting that the Syrian city is the next scene.

At the same time, US Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that the international coalition fighting the Islamic State should now focus on Raqqa.

"After Mosul, Raqqa is the most urgent, it is the city where the Islamic State is planning overseas attacks. Raqqa is actually their capital," said Blinken.

Raqqa, which lies on the Euphrates River near the border with Turkey and has a population of more than 200.000, in March 2013 became the first provincial capital in Syria to fall to the rebels, at the time the Al-Nusra Front, then an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in that country.

However, conflicts soon broke out between Al-Nusra and the jihadists of the future Islamic State.

The jihadists imposed Islamic dress codes in schools and began attacking churches in Raqqa, ushering in a reign of terror marked by kidnappings and public beheadings.

On January 6, 2014, a full-scale war broke out between the rival groups before the jihadists took control of the entire city.

Five months later, Mosul fell to the jihadists, and on June 29, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called "caliphate" in the Iraqi city that spans Iraq and Syria.

Raqqa is the site of the Islamic State's worst atrocities, such as stoning a woman to death on accusations of adultery or killing homosexuals by throwing them from the roof.

In the province of Raki, the cage with the Jordanian pilot was also burned, as evidenced by a video posted by the Islamic State on the Internet in February 2015.

Strictly interpreting Islamic law, the jihadists in Raqqa have strictly banned cigarettes and alcohol, while banning men from shaving their beards and forcing women to wear the veil, the so-called niqab.

Rules have also been introduced when it comes to stores, whereby only married couples are allowed to go shopping together, while dolls as models are prohibited in the windows.

In the main square of Raqqa, sex slaves are traded, especially kidnapped Yazidi girls, and it is also the place where opponents of jihadist rules are tortured to death.

Western intelligence services warn that Raqqa, located 550 kilometers northeast of Damascus, serves as a base for planned attacks in other countries, the French agency concludes.