The Washington Post: What About Cancer, "Jihadists' Heartland?"

While the shaky ceasefire lasts in Syria, and after the tragic days in Aleppo, the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State in Syria, is completely out of the public's attention, writes the Washington Post.

For months, jihadist propaganda messages aimed at the West have been coming from Raqqa, and Kurdish militia members are trying to topple the "fortress".

"A full offensive to take over the city is months away, despite hopes in Washington that the operation could take place before US President Barack Obama leaves office. One of the rare visits to Raqqa illustrates how far the final salute to the jihadist organization is," the Washington Post assesses.

The newspaper adds that the battle for Mosul is lagging behind and that the attack in Berlin reminded the West of the threat of terrorism, and that there is no plan to attack Raqqa.

"The Trump administration will have to deal with that," states the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, it added, a preliminary operation to isolate Raka was underway.

In the past months, Kurdish forces with the help of Syrian rebels have been slowly cutting off the city from the rest of the province of the same name, about 140 villages have been occupied on almost 2.000 square meters of mostly rural and empty territory, reports B92.

"This is not like the battle for Mosul, which is being attacked by numerous armored formations from various sides. There are more sheep than soldiers here. The progress is minor even though there are about 600 US special forces nearby who are part of the rebel forces. One of them was killed 24 November," the paper concludes.