Ankara — The battle to capture the Daesh (the so-called IS) group’s Syrian bastion Raqqa started two days ago, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, according to the state-run news agency Anadolu Sunday.
Yildirim appeared to contradict comments Saturday from the Kurdish-Arab alliance battling the militants that the push into the northern Syrian city would “begin in a few days”.
“The long-planned Raqqa operation began late on June 2,” after the US informed Turkey of the operation, Yildirim said, without providing further details.
He was referring to the latest thrust in a drive by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to close in on Raqqa that began in November. The SDF is a Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance including fighters from the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a “terror group” linked to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatists inside Turkey.
SDF seized a town and dam to the west of Raqqa this weekend.
“We will begin in a few days,” said Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, spokeswoman for the SDF’s “Wrath of the Euphrates” operation to capture Raqqa, speaking Saturday.
Meanwhile, US-backed Syrian militias said they seized a major dam on the Euphrates river from Islamic State on Sunday, their latest gain as they push towards Raqqa city.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said they captured the Baath Dam in the morning, renaming it Freedom Dam. The hydroelectric dam lies some 22 km upstream of Raqqa, Islamic State’s base of operations in Syria.
The spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF’s key component, said fighters were combing nearby villages for mines and shoring up their defensive lines. “The dam has been completely liberated,” Nouri Mahmoud said.
The advance means the SDF now hold all three major dams along the Euphrates, after gaining control of Syria’s largest dam last month.
With air strikes and special forces from the US-led coalition, the SDF have been encircling Raqqa to take the city, which Daesh has used as a hub to plan attacks abroad.
The alliance advanced in recent months to within several kilometers of the center of Raqqa, facing fierce resistance from Daesh. Fighting since late last year has displaced tens of thousands of people according to United Nations sources, with many flooding camps in the area.
The operation to storm the city will start in the next “few days”, Mahmoud had said on Saturday. — Agencies
