US sends 200 more troops for fight to liberate Raqqa
Syrian coalition says American soldiers will again battle ISIL from the front lines
AALIYAH, SYRIA // The US will send 200 more troops to join the Arab- Kurdish coalition in “phase two” of its campaign for ISIL’s Syrian bastion of Raqqa.
The US troops, which the Syrian Democratic Forces said would be “on the front lines” of the push for the northern city, will join 300 of their comrades already there.
SDF spokesman Talal Sello and adviser Nasser Mansour said the Americans would take part in the offensive alongside SDF fighters.
“US forces were on the front lines of the first phase of this offensive and one member of these forces was killed,” Mr Sello said.
“Their participation will be even more effective alongside our forces in the second phase.”
US defence secretary Ashton Carter yesterday made the announcement of extra soldiers at a forum in Bahrain.
Mr Carter said the 200 additions would include bomb disposal experts, trainers and special forces.
The SDF will “begin phase two of the campaign, which aims to liberate territory west of Raqqa and isolate the city”, spokeswoman Jihan Ahmed said.
Raqqa is the de facto capital of the “caliphate” ISIL declared across Iraq and Syria in 2014. Ms Ahmed said the SDF had captured 700 square kilometres of territory since it began its advance on the city on November 5.
The alliance had also grown in size, she said, with more than 1,500 local fighters joining after being “trained and equipped by the international coalition”.
The SDF’s coordination with the coalition “will be stronger and more effective during the second phase of the campaign”, she said.
Meanwhile, the Turkish army yesterday entered ISIL’s bastion of Al Bab in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“They entered Al Bab from the north-east after violent clashes with the jihadists as Turkish artillery bombarded the town,” the observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman said.
ISIL has used car bombs, booby traps and mines to defend what remains of their territory.
“We’re now helping tens of thousands of local Syrian forces to isolate Raqqa”, which has also been a base for militants plotting attacks abroad, Mr Carter said.
Backed by coalition air strikes, the SDF has pushed south from areas near the Turkish border, advancing to within 25km of the city. The offensive has been complicated by Turkey’s deep hostility to the SDF.
Ankara regards the alliance’s most powerful force, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as an arm of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party who have waged a deadly insurgency in south-eastern Turkey for three decades.
The SDF controls a large region of north-eastern Syria along the Turkish border and a smaller area in the north- west. After advances that looked set to link the two areas, the Turkish army entered Syria to battle ISIL and the YPG.
Turkish troops have since attacked Kurdish forces several times even as they have suffered losses at the hands of ISIL.
US defence officials said on Thursday that they were brokering talks between the two sides to prevent any further conflict between them disrupting the campaign against ISIL.
Col John Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led coalition, said they were “facilitating joint discussions with Turkey, the SDF and other coalition partners to promote de-escalation in the area”.
Raqqa and Mosul are the last major cities under ISIL control after the militants suffered a string of losses in both countries over the past year. ISIL still holds most of the city of Deir Ezzor, to the south-east.