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Kurdish-led forces announce plan to retake Raqqa from Isis US seeks Turkish backing for Kurdish-led operation in Raqqa
(about 5 hours later)
Kurdish-led Syrian forces backed by the US have announced a plan to retake Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa, saying they hope Turkey will not “interfere in internal Syrian affairs”. Senior US military officials have met their Turkish counterparts in Ankara to seek approval for the launch of a largely Kurdish-led move to isolate Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
The announcement by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, was made on Sunday at a press conference in Ain Issa, 34 miles (55km) north of Raqqa, attended by commanders and spokespeople for the group. An alliance of Kurdish and Arab armed groups – the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – announced on Sunday that the isolation of Raqqa had started as part of a pincer movement designed to defeat Isis not just in Raqqa, but in Mosul, the second city of Iraq.
An official read out a statement saying the operation to liberate Raqqa, called Euphrates rage, had officially begun. The SDF claimed the US had agreed that Turkey and its factions would not play a role in the attack, and the assault would be backed by US air support.
The statement said 30,000 fighters would take part. Ankara had previously expressed alarm that the SDF is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which it considers to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) and has repeatedly targeted inside Syria.
The announcement came as US-backed Iraqi forces entered the eastern edges of the Isis-held city of Mosul and were working to push deeper into the group’s last urban bastion in Iraq. Kurdish officials said the two campaigns were not coordinated, but simply “good timing”. In an effort to gauge Turkish reaction to the SDF’s announcement, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Joseph Dunford, met his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, in Ankara on Sunday.
The SDF is dominated by the main Syrian Kurdish fighting force known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The US considers the group to be the most effective force against Isis, but Turkey views it as a terror organisation and claims the force is linked to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The US regards the SDF as the most effective fighting force in northern Syria but Turkey has repeatedly said it will not tolerate a large Kurdish role in the attack on Raqqa and has been fighting to limit the Kurdish-controlled area in Syria.
Turkish officials, including the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have said they will not accept a role for the Kurds in the liberation of Raqqa. Announcing the assault on Raqqa at a press conference in Ain Issa, about 30 miles north of Raqqa, Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the SDF, said the “major battle to liberate Raqqa and its surroundings has begun”.
Last week, Turkey’s defence minister, Fikri Işık, suggested Turkish-backed forces could be an “alternative” to the Kurds. Ahmed said the operation – called Wrath of the Euphrates – would involve about 30,000 fighters and had begun on Saturday night.
But Kurdish officials have rejected any role for Turkey, or the opposition forces it supports inside Syria, in the Raqqa campaign. She said the operation aimed to free Raqqa from “the forces of global, obscurantist terrorism represented by Daesh [Isis] that took it for their presumed capital”.
An SDF official told the press conference: “Our hope is that the Turkish state will not interfere in the internal affairs of Syria. Raqqa will be free by its own sons.” The SDF spokesman Talal Sello said the operation would proceed in two phases, “first liberating the countryside around Raqqa and isolating the city, and secondly taking control of the city”.
There was no immediate comment from Turkey or the US on the Kurdish announcement. The announcement came as US-backed Iraqi forces continued fighting in the eastern edges of Mosul. Kurdish officials said the two campaigns were not coordinated, but simply “good timing”.
Isis fighters fought back against Iraqi troops with car bombs and ambushes on Sunday, stalling the advance in their northern Iraqi stronghold. Maj Gen Maan al-Saadi, a commander in Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism force, told state television that Isis fighters had launched more than 100 car bombs in the city’s eastern districts.
Suspected Isis bombings killed at least 20 people elsewhere in Iraq.
Washington says the battle for Raqqa will overlap with the assault on Mosul, in part because of concerns that any delay would allow Isis to use it as a base to launch attacks on targets abroad.
The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said on Sunday that an offensive on Raqqa could not be treated as distinct from the Mosul assault.
“We have to go to Raqqa … it will automatically be local forces that will liberate Raqqa even if French forces, US forces, the coalition contribute with airstrikes to dismantle Daesh,” Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.
“Mosul-Raqqa can’t be disassociated because Islamic State and the territories it occupies span that area,” he said.
US officials have acknowledged that ousting Isis from Raqqa poses tougher political challenges than the offensive on Mosul, and have suggested the initial stage would involve isolating the city before forces try to move in.US officials have acknowledged that ousting Isis from Raqqa poses tougher political challenges than the offensive on Mosul, and have suggested the initial stage would involve isolating the city before forces try to move in.
The commander of anti-Isis coalition forces, Lt Gen Stephen Townsend, said US intelligence had detected signs that Isis attacks against western targets were being plotted from Raqqa, adding urgency to coalition plans to encircle and eventually assault the city. The US is working to rebalance the ethnic mix of the SDF, which also includes Turkoman and some Arab fighters, since it knows that a Kurdish assault on Raqqa would both be deeply unpopular inside Raqqa and also not something the Kurds would wish for.
“We know this plot and planning is emanating from Raqqa. We think we have got to get to Raqqa pretty soon,” he said last week. In a defiant message on Sunday the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accused Europe of abetting terrorism with its support for the PKK and said he did not care if Europe called him a dictator as he cracked down on the Kurdish militant group and its sympathisers.
But coalition leaders have been struggling with the timing of the Raqqa campaign, not only due to the demands of the Mosul operation, but also because the political and military landscape in Syria is more complicated. “Europe, as a whole, is abetting terrorism. Even though they declared the PKK a terrorist organisation, this is clear … We see how the PKK can act so freely and comfortably in Europe,” Erdoğan said in a televised speech.
Townsend said more Syrian opposition fighters needed to be recruited, trained and equipped for the Raqqa battle, but he and other officials have said in recent days that the Mosul and Raqqa operations will overlap. “I don’t care if they call me dictator or whatever else, it goes in one ear, out the other. What matters is what my people call me,” he said.
Unlike in Iraq, where the coalition has a coherent government to work with, the US and its coalition partners in Syria are relying on a hodgepodge of local Arab and Kurdish opposition groups, some of which are fierce rivals. Tensions are exacerbated by the presence of Russian and Syrian forces on one side and Turkish forces on another. Turkey has drawn international criticism following the detention on Friday of the leaders of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP), parliament’s second largest opposition party, as part of a terrorism investigation. The government accuses the HDP of links to the PKK, which the party denies.
Townsend said the YPG would necessarily be part of the offensive. “The facts are these: the only force that is capable on any near-term timeline is the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG are a significant portion,” he said. “So, we’re negotiating, we’re planning, we’re having talks with Turkey and we are going to take this in steps.”