Airstrikes will strengthen fight against Assad, says Syria's opposition

Istanbul: Syria’s Western-backed National Coalition opposition group welcomed air strikes by the United States and Gulf Arab allies on Islamic State strongholds in Syria on Tuesday, saying they would strengthen its struggle against President Bashar al-Assad. The targets of the air and missile strikes included Raqqa city in eastern Syria, the headquarters of Islamic State, an extremist Sunni Muslim force that has seized large expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate erasing borders in the heart of the Middle East. [caption id=“attachment_1690883” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. AFP image[/caption] “This will make us stronger in the fight against Assad… The campaign should continue until the Islamic State is completely eradicated from Syrian lands,” Monzer Akbik, special envoy to the president of the coalition, told Reuters. “We will help the Syrian people and their fight against terrorism and hopefully these lands will be liberated and our democratic aims reached,” he said. A significant part of US President Barack Obama’s strategy against Islamic State depends on bolstering Syria’s moderate rebels to strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to the extremists. Syria’s moderate rebels have found themselves fighting both the Islamic State and Syrian government forces. US officials have said the plan is to enable them to hold the ground they already have in an increasingly complex war. Reuters