BEIRUT // An American-backed coalition of Syrian forces has launched a long-awaited offensive on ISIL’s de facto capital of Raqqa as the extremists fight to hold on to Mosul in Iraq.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said the “Wrath of the Euphrates” campaign began on Saturday night and involved 30,000 fighters from the coalition of Arab and Kurdish factions that is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia.
On Sunday afternoon, Syrian activists reported heavy clashes between ISIL and SDF forces just south of Ain Issa, about 50 kilometres north of Raqqa. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had seized six small villages and farms in Raqqa’s northern countryside. It added that ISIL had detonated two car bombs to combat the advancing forces.
Raqqa has been under the complete control of ISIL since January 2014 when the extremist group chased Syrian rebel factions from the city.
SDF spokesman Talal Sello said the operation would aim to first capture areas around Raqqa to cut off and isolate city before attacking it directly.
“The fight will not be easy, and will require accurate and careful operations because ISIL will defend its bastion knowing that the loss of Raqqa will mean it is finished in Syria,” he said.
However, the SDF offensive could create problems between the US and Turkey. The vital American ally in the fight against ISIL has demanded that the YPG, which it considers a terrorist group, be kept out of any attack on Raqqa. Turkey views the YPG as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish government.
Turkey intervened militarily in northern Syria in August alongside its rebel proxies to push ISIL back from its border but soon found itself fighting YPG forces.
Mr Sello, the SDF spokesman, said his group had “agreed definitively” with the US-led anti-ISIL coalition that Turkey and its Syrian proxies would play no part in the Raqqa offensive.
But unless Washington is able to calm Ankara – an increasingly difficult task given the tensions over Syria and a failed coup attempt in July that it blames on a US-based cleric – Turkey may not take the announcement lightly.
US secretary of defence Ash Carter welcomed the SDF’s offensive, saying “the effort to isolate, and ultimately liberate, Raqqa marks the next step in our coalition campaign plan.”
He added: “As in Mosul, the fight will not be easy and there is hard work ahead, but it is necessary to end the fiction of ISIL’s caliphate and disrupt the group’s ability to carry out terror attacks against the United States, our allies and our partners.”
Brett McGurk, Barack Obama’s envoy to the US-led coalition battling ISIL, said Washington was in “close contact” with Ankara over the assault on Raqqa.
“We want this to be as coordinated as possible, recognising that there will be a mix of forces on the field and that many of those forces of course do not see eye to eye, but they do share a very common and still very lethal enemy,” he said.
Gen Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, arrived in Ankara on Sunday on a previously unannounced visit. The Turkish army said he was to hold talks with armed forces chief Hulusi Akar.
Turkey has not yet commented on the Raqqa offensive. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish-backed Syrian forces were advancing swiftly in towards the ISIL-held town of Al Bab, about 140km north-west of Raqqa, but made no mention of the SDF campaign.
Turkey has also demanded a role for its forces in the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL, which was launched by Iraqi troops and Iraqi Kurdish forces last month.
Despite being rebuffed by Baghdad and those running the campaign, Turkey has massed troops along its border with Iraq, threatening a military showdown. In a further provocation, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday called Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi “weak” for allowing Mosul to fall to ISIL in the first place and for letting the PKK hold territory in the country.
ISIL has been losing territory on several fronts but an attack on Raqqa will most probably not be quick or easy. In Iraq, the fight for Mosul has been slow-going even though the forces there include US-trained troops with American-made armoured vehicles and support from advanced artillery systems. The SDF and YPG are formidable fighting forces, but they lack the equipment and training that the elite Iraqi units have.
With the SDF and YPG active on other fronts as well, it is also possible that their forces could be diverted to other battles – particularly if Turkey wants to step up its fight against the group.
jwood@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse and Associated Press