Top Turkish, US soldiers discuss Raqqa operation

U.S. Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford held a meeting on Feb. 17 with Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar at the İncirlik air base to discuss an offensive to capture Raqqa from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Turkey hopes the new U.S. administration under Donald Trump will change its policy of cooperation with the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, calling instead for a joint operation between Ankara and Washington rather than using the Syrian Kurdish group to remove ISIL from its self-declared capital.    

Defense Minister Fikri Işık said on Feb. 16 that Turkey and the U.S. would consider whether to conduct the Raqqa operation in tandem. "I don't think the U.S. has taken a definite decision on this," he added.    

The top U.S. general made a visit to Ankara in November for talks with his Turkish counterpart, during which time Turkey proposed a plan for the Raqqa offensive with Syrian Arab elements supported by the Turkish Army.

Turkey is part of that anti-ISIL coalition but relations with NATO ally Washington have been strained by U.S. support for the Kurdish YPG militia in the fight against ISIL. Ankara considers the YPG to be an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency against Turkish state for more than three decades.

Ankara had previously expressed alarm that the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were dominated by the YPG militia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the next target for the Turkish offensive should be Raqqa, which has been partly dislodged from its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. The SDF, an alliance dominated by the YPG, is in the middle of a multi-phased operation to encircle Raqqa, backed by air...