By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAADOCT|BEIRUT, Lebanon — American-backed forces have barely begun to clear the land mines from Raqqa after pushing the Islamic State from the city, the de facto capital of its self-declared caliphate. But the militants’ defeat there is already setting the stage for a new round of conflict and instability in Syria’s long civil war. Tensions are brewing over who will ultimately control Raqqa, where American-backed Kurdish and Arab forces declared victory on Tuesday. To defeat Islamic State, myriad international and Syrian combatants — many of them sworn enemies — banded together or put their conflicts on the back burner. Continue reading the main storySource: New York Times / News Now(Visited 7 times, 7 visits today)Commentscomments

Source: GNN Liberia October 19, 2017 23:48 UTC