BEIRUT – A Kurdish-led force backed by the United States announced Sunday the start of a major military operation to drive Islamic State militants out of their self-declared capital of Raqqa in northeastern Syria.
The operation by the Syrian Democratic Forces, or the SDF, is timed to coincide with the U.S.-supported military effort to seize the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State. The assault by the SDF – an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces that has dealt substantial blows to the Islamic State in northeastern Syria – represents an intensified international effort to squeeze the extremist group as it loses control of vast territory in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic State has been badly weakened by airstrikes that have killed its leaders and destroyed its infrastructure, as well as by ground assaults from an array of U.S.-backed forces.
Those ground attacks, carried out by Kurds and Arabs in Iraq and Syria, have driven the militants out of key strongholds, such as the Iraqi city of Fallujah, and towns along the border with Turkey that had been used as hubs for trade and funneling fighters and weapons.
Officials in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State believe that defeating the group in its two most important cities, Raqqa and Mosul, could deal a devastating blow to the group.
After making sweeping advances in Iraq two years ago, the Islamic State declared a caliphate, imposing harsh religious rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islam.
But the operation to seize Raqqa, about 275 miles east of the Syrian capital, Damascus, adds yet another potentially combustible wrinkle to the devastating conflict in the country.
Already, Kurdish efforts to exploit the chaos and build an autonomous region in northern Syria has aggravated the country’s sectarian politics – with some U.S.-allied Syrian rebels opposed to the Kurdish moves – and inflamed regional tensions.
Turkey, in particular, views with great suspicion the leadership role of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or the YPG, in the SDF, which is backed by the U.S.-led coalition with training, arms and air support. Over the summer, Turkish forces intervened in northern Syria, targeting Islamic State militants but also acting as a curb to Kurdish territorial ambitions in the country.
“Our huge military campaign to liberate Raqqa and its countryside from the dark world forces represented by Daesh has started,” the SDF announced Sunday in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. The group is also known as ISIS and ISIL.
The SDF made the announcement in the eastern Syrian town of Ain Issa, saying that as many as 30,000 fighters would participate. At the news conference, an unnamed SDF official expressed concern about potential Turkish involvement in the Raqqa assault.
“Our hope is that the Turkish state will not interfere in the internal affairs of Syria,” said the unidentified SDF official, the Reuters news agency reported.
Last week, Turkey’s defense minister said his forces could lead the attack on Raqqa instead of the SDF. Even though the United States considers the Syrian force to be the most effective in battling the Islamic State, Turkey sees the involvement of YPG militants as a threat.
Turkey, a NATO member and important U.S. ally, considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its links to Turkey’s own Kurdish separatists.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials have indicated that the SDF would lead the Raqqa operation. Last month, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said a military operation targeting the city should coincide with the attack on Mosul.
By Sunday afternoon, SDF fighters did not appear to have made any major advances, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
“It has not formally started yet. This is just an announcement,” said Rami Abdulrahman, a pseudonym for the director of the Observatory.
It will probably take weeks, if not longer, before fighters enter Raqqa. SDF fighters expect to face intense resistance similar to that put up against advancing Iraqi forces on the outskirts of Mosul. The Islamic State has had ample time to dig in its heels since seizing Raqqa in early 2014, and its militants are likely to use tunnels for ambushes, booby-trap vehicles and enlist suicide bombers.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Hugh Naylor
