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US-Backed Alliance Launch Operation to Re-take Raqqa

by VOA News

   A U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Syrian fighters has launched an
   operation to re-take the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion, Raqqa.

   A commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, in Ein Issa, 50
   kilometers north of Raqqa, announced the start of the campaign Sunday.

   THE SDF is dominated by the main Syrian Kurdish fighting force known as
   the People's Protection Units, or YPG.

   Raqqa, Syria

   Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organization, but the United States
   believes the YGP is the only militia capable of undertaking the task.

   Washington has agreed that Turkey will not participate in the fight to
   re-take Raqqa.

   SDF spokesman Talal Sello told the French News Agency, AFP, "we have
   agreed definitively with the (U.S.-led) international coalition that
   there will be no role for Turkey or the armed factions allied with it
   in the operation."

   America's European allies have also objected and expressed strong
   skepticism about any major role for YPG. They fear that having the
   Kurds in the vanguard of an assault on Raqqa, historically a
   predominantly Arab city, would fuel sectarian rivalries.