LOC23:13
20:13 GMT
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (KUNA) - More than 30,000 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) trained by the US will mount the offensive to liberate Raqqa from the so-called Islamic State (IS), the US-led coalition's top commander told reporters Wednesday.
"They have an Arab wing which we refer to as the Syrian Arab Corp... a good portion of them are Kurdish forces, Syrian Kurds. But also, a significant part of that force is Arabs and other ethnic groups that are from that region," the head of the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said.
"We will train the forces that we need. And specifically, we're going to try to recruit and train a force that's from the local area of Raqqa," he added.
Raqqa is the proclaimed capital of IS, and it was revealed Wednesday that an offensive into the city will begin in "a few weeks," according to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.
"Most of the recruiting will be done not by us, but it will be done by our local partners," Townsend said.
"We actually only assist with specialty courses, weapons, leadership courses, those kind of things. And I don't think that training will be done in the vicinity of Raqqa."
This operation is also expected to be in a more "complicated battle space" than Mosul, he noted, particularly as "it's going to be with a partnered force rather than the partner being a nation state's armed forces."
The Mosul offensive is currently being led by the Iraqi Security Forces, with Iraqi commanders calling the shots, Townsend said.
"There are a lot of regional security concerns that are in competition" in Syria, he admitted.
"And the Syrian regime's involved, the Russians are involved, Turkey's involved, it's hard."
And while the US is "willing to entertain any partner... who is willing to go down to help liberate Raqqa from IS," Turkey in particular "doesn't want to see us operating with the SDF anywhere, particularly in Raqqa," Townsend told reporters.
Kurds are not only a significant part of the population in northern Syria, but Kurdish fighters are deemed to be the most capable of defeating IS in that region, US officials have maintained.
Turkey however has been bombing Kurdish targets across its border for the last two months, targeting the YPG, which it calls a terrorist organization.
The YPG is the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish opposition Party for Democratic Unity (PYD).
"When members of the coalition aren't engaging Daesh, they're doing other activities, that's not helpful for the coalition. It's not part of the coalition," Townsend said, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
"We ask members of the coalition to refrain from undertaking activities that are not focused on the defeat of Daesh," he added.
"We're negotiating, we're planning, we're having talks with Turkey and we're gonna take this in steps," Townsend said of the Raqqa operation. (pickup previous)
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