Donald Trump's plan to 'annihilate Islamic State' raises concerns

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Analysts are expressing concerns regarding US President Donald Trump’s new “annihilation campaign,” unveiled by the Pentagon on Friday.

The US announced it would go after the Islamic State (IS) in a more aggressive manner, encircling and killing as many members of the group as possible as part of a shift in previous tactics that allowed IS fighters to escape.

The change raises the possibility of greater civilian casualties and further large-scale displacement.

Experts claim larger US strategic risks could benefit the extremists’ narratives.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday said Trump approved the tactical change to “an attrition fight to surround the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate IS [and] prevent the return home of escaped foreign fighters.”

Joost Hiltermann, the International Crisis Group’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, explained the shift in the Trump administration’s approach reflects an assessment the primary threat of surviving IS fighters derives from those who came from Europe and could return there to engage in acts of violence.

“If that assessment is correct, then eliminating them in Iraq and Syria could make sense,” he added in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Fears come as monitoring groups noticed a rise in the civilian death toll since Trump came into power, delegating authority to commanders to conduct more aggressive military operations against IS.

Airwars, a monitoring group, registered nearly 1,800 civilian deaths due to US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq in March, three times more than in January.

It is unclear how the new plan will affect the operations in Mosul.

The offensive, which is now in its seventh month, is nearing its end but there are concerns regarding the 400,000 civilians still trapped in the remaining IS-held neighborhoods.

The offensive on Raqqa, IS’ de facto capital in Syria and one of its last strongholds, has yet to begin.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany