The United States said the offensive to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from the Islamic State must include locally based fighters at the forefront of the campaign, after an alliance of US-backed Kurdish and Arab armed groups known as the Syrian Democratic Forces announced it had begun operations to assault Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de-facto capital in Syria. The SDF said they had set up a command center to coordinate with the U.S.-led coalition against the jihadists. But speaking at a news conference in Amman, the United States envoy to the coalition said it was Washington’s “priority” that a Raqqa campaign would include local fighters in its “vanguard”.
“So the announcement today came from the Syrian Democratic Forces which is a coalition of Kurds and Arabs. And when it comes to Raqqa I want to make very clear it is our principle priority throughout this campaign that the vanguard of the force that takes major territory from Daesh (Islamic State) should be locally based forces. So when it comes to Raqqa we want force that ultimately liberates Raqqa that is primarily from the local area – Arabs from the area. And so we have trained many of these fighters and that force will continue to grow as we get to the subsequent phase of the campaign. We of course work very closely with the Syrian Democratic forces when they are fighting Daesh. We do provide air support. It has to be coordinated,” said Brett Mcgurk, US Special Envoy for anti-IS Coalition.
The announcement of the operation to recapture the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State ignored demands by Turkey to start the operation only after the assault against the Iraqi city of Mosul is concluded, prompting accusations by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against European powers of supporting-terror-groups in both Turkey and Syria.
“Turkey carried out a fierce fight against terrorism in a year that many Western countries have not experienced since World War Two. All the weapons we seized from them (PKK militants) belong to the West. Of course, they have an excuse. What do they say? ‘We gave these weapons to coalition forces. Perhaps they (PKK militants) obtained those weapons from them.’ Who are you playing? You are giving those weapons to them directly,” said Erdogan
The heads of the Turkish and American armed forces discussed joint strategies against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, during a meeting in Ankara yesterday which signaled the strengthening coordination between the two NATO allies. The two military chiefs also discussed the actions of the Kurdish YPG, a group backed by the United States but seen as a hostile force by Turkey, in Syria and Iraq and the risks of sectarian clashes in the region.