Turkey said Tuesday that the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led
forces leading an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa
should not enter the city itself but merely help encircle it, a
suggestion dismissed by the Kurds.
The dispute between the two U.S. allies threatens to complicate
efforts to drive IS out of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the
extremist group's self-described caliphate.
The U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish,
Arab and Turkmen fighters, have driven IS from large swaths of
territory, but Turkey views the Syrian Kurds who dominate the group
as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in its
southeast.
Turkey has sent its own forces across the border to back Syrian
opposition fighters, and has suggested they lead the offensive to
retake Raqqa. The Turkey-backed forces, now pushing toward the IS
stronghold of al-Bab, have clashed with IS as well as the SDF.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
Turkey-backed opposition fighters captured six villages near al-Bab
on Tuesday and are now about 4 miles (7 kilometers) from the
town.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters that
the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph
Dunford, told Turkish officials during a recent visit that
Kurdish-led forces would only have a role in encircling Raqqa and
would not enter the city.
"We hope that this will be the case and we expect that our
partners keep their promises," Cavusoglu said. He said "local"
fighters aided by Turkish special forces should drive IS out of
Raqqa, and suggested that residents of the mainly Sunni Arab city
might not welcome Kurdish forces.
"We should not force the people to choose between two evils," he
said.
The SDF has made some gains since the Raqqa offensive began
Sunday, taking over nearly a dozen villages.
Ilham Ahmed, a senior official in the political arm of the SDF,
said the same forces leading the offensive will enter Raqqa.
"The campaign will continue to be in that form until it enters
the city," Ahmed told The Associated Press. She said the
Kurdish-led SDF, as the main force on the ground, is best placed to
decide what forces are needed to liberate the city.
A U.S. defense official said that the agreement Dunford made
with his Turkish counterpart was not explicitly a U.S. prohibition
on Syrian Kurdish fighters going into Raqqa. The official said it
was rather a U.S. commitment to "work with" Turkey on the ultimate
composition of what is expected to be a predominantly Sunni Arab
force to seize and hold the city. The official was not authorized
to discuss details of Dunford's talks in Ankara and spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Ahmed said U.S officials have not yet raised the possibility of
Turkish or Turkey-backed forces taking part in the Raqqa
offensive.
"I think (Ankara) is trying to pressure the Americans to bring
in allied groups into Raqqa. We are the main party that decides if
we need such troops to be involved," she said. "We are
self-sufficient. There is no need."
The U.S. Central Command says coalition warplanes have carried
out more than 30 air raids north of Raqqa since Sunday. SDF
spokesman Talal Sillo told the Kurdish news agency Hawar that the
coalition has also provided fresh arms, including anti-tank
missiles.
A Raqqa-based Syrian activist group, known as Raqqa is Being
Slaughtered Silently, said IS militants have prevented residents of
a nearby village that was bombed by coalition forces from leaving
and imposed a curfew there.
Both the Raqqa activist group and Observatory said that IS
militants have blown up a number of bridges over irrigation canals
north of Raqqa, near Ein Issa, where the SDF is based.
Elsewhere in Syria, two airstrikes killed at least 21 civilians
in the northwestern rebel-held province of Idlib, according to the
Observatory and the Syrian Civil Defense, volunteer first
responders also known as the White Helmets.
The Civil Defense said 10 members of the same family were killed
in an air raid on the village of Baarbo, while 11 others were
killed in a strike on the town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Observatory
said seven children and two pregnant women were killed in Khan
Sheikhoun.
The Observatory and the Civil Defense blamed the strikes on
government and Russian jets. Russia is a key military ally of
Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Government troops meanwhile drove opposition fighters out of an
important district south of Aleppo city, the Syrian military said.
The rebels launched a campaign against government-held western
Aleppo on Oct. 28, with the aim of lifting the siege on the
rebel-held eastern part of the city.
Later Tuesday, Russian media reported that the Russian navy is
preparing to strike militants on the outskirts of Aleppo.
The Interfax news agency and online Gaztea.ru cited unnamed
Defense Ministry officials as saying that jets based on the Admiral
Kuznetsov aircraft carrier are preparing to conduct the raids
within hours. They said that other Russian navy ships will also
launch precision weapons at militant targets near the city.
Moscow says that Russian and Syrian warplanes have observed a
moratorium on airstrikes on the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo
for three weeks, but the break hasn't applied to the surrounding
province.