Obama refuses to strike Islamic State heartland

Amir Taheri writes in the New York Post that Obama has made a decision not to strike targets in the Islamic State's heartland in the Syrian province of ar-Raqqah.

Iraqis claim that they have supplied Washington with over 100 “credible military targets” in ar-Raqqah province and the city of the same name, which is the seat of the self-styled Caliph Abubakar al-Baghdadi.

(Last month he changed his name to Husseini al-Qurayshi to claim descent from the Prophet’s grandson Hussein and roots in the Prophet’s tribe of al-Quraysh.)

Targets in ar-Raqqah include the House of the Caliph in al-Mufajea’ah, two barracks at al-Mishlab and al-Utaiba Hajjaniah, the headquarters of the Religious Police (Hasbah), the caliph’s treasury (Beit-al-Mal) and two bridges over the River Euphrates linking it to Turkey and Iraq, as well as the command and control center at al-Qahtaniyah.

The caliphate’s radio and TV network, including studios where propaganda videos are made, is located in four buildings in the ar-Rawdah neighborhood.

ISIS has also coverted a number of grain silos into arms depots in and around the city. Last week the Jordanians blew up one of them in the peripheries of ar-Raqqah at eastern Abu-Qubai.

ISIS also controls 13 small and medium-sized oil fields, all legitimate targets for coalition attacks — as is the stream of trucks and buses that bring supplies and would-be mujahedeen to ar-Raqqah from Turkey.

So long as its heart remains immune to attack, ISIS retains a free hand on all other fronts, and continues to attack, hold or retreat as seems best.

And it has Obama to thank for giving it such freedom.

Read more here.