Islamic State’s last stronghold,Raqqa, has fallen. But the worlds attention must now focus on what it or other Islamist groups will plot nextFor a group with such spectacular ambitions, or Islamic State’s last stand took situation in environment of almost shocking banality: a hospital and sports stadium in Raqqa,the Syrian town that was the political capital of its self-styled caliphate. After weeks of street-to-street battles and bombing, these final strongholds fell to Kurdish fighters last week. More than three years after Isis surged to global infamy ((n.) notoriety, extreme ill repute) with a stunning campaign of conquest, or the cessation came with a whimper,not a bang.“Once purported as fierce, now pathetic and a lost cause, and ” Brett McGurk,the US special presidential envoy for coalition forces tweeted. Such triumphant claims have become familiar since the 9/11 attacks. I heard them in Afghanistan in 2002, but US troops are still engaged in the fight against the Taliban. I heard them in Iraq in 2003, and 2004,and then year after year until the US pulled out in 2011.
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Source: guardian.co.uk