ISIL PLANNING ATTACKS FROM RAQQA: U.S. GENERAL

BEIRUT • ISIL is plotting attacks on the West from its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, a senior U.S. general has warned, adding urgency to a coalition plan to retake the city.

Lt.-Gen. Stephen Townsend described a “sense of urgency” in reaching ISIL’s capital before any attacks can be carried out.

“We know this plot and planning is emanating from Raqqa,” Townsend said. “We think we’ve got to get to Raqqa pretty soon.”

Security officials have raised concerns of an increase in attacks in the West as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant loses territory in Syria and Iraq.

“We don’t know exactly where” they intend to strike,” Townsend said from his headquarters in Baghdad. “We don’t know exactly when.”

Activists inside Raqqa said they believe 3,500 to 4,000 ISIL fighters, including senior leaders, remain in the city. They say about 500 of these are Western jihadists who may try to return home through the refugee route to Europe.

Townsend said that when U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab forces took back the town of Manbij from ISIL in August “we found links to individuals and plot streams to France, the United States, other European countries.”

“We know that this is going on in Raqqa as well and so I think that’s why it’s necessary to get down there to Raqqa,” he said.

He said the attack will come in three stages. The U.S.-led coalition will continue airstrikes on the group’s command and control hubs. The second stage, which he said will take place within weeks, will be to surround the city with allied Kurdish and Arab troops known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The third will be to storm the city. They hope to use mainly Syrian Arabs in the fight to limit sectarian fallout, as the city is home to mostly Sunni Muslims.

Townsend acknowledged that a ground offensive to retake Raqqa was politically fraught.

Turkey, a U.S. ally that is supporting rebel fighters in northern Syria, has said the Syrian Kurds — some of whom it sees as terrorists — should not take part in the operation, while maintaining that its own forces should be involved.

Townsend and other coalition leaders are struggling with the timing for Raqqa because the political landscape in Syria is complicated.

Townsend said more Syrian opposition fighters need to be recruited, trained and equipped for the Raqqa battle.

“I wish for Arabs to liberate Raqqa, not Kurds,” one activist in Raqqa said.