Northern Raqqa offensive

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Joseph Dunford will pay a visit to Turkey on Feb. 17 for discussions on the Raqqa offensive, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık has stated. 

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Joseph Dunford will pay a visit to Turkey on Feb. 17 for discussions on the Raqqa offensive, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık has stated. 

Turkish troops will not remain in Syria once the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is defeated and they will leave the lands to their "true owners," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, while vowing to advance the ongoing Euphrates Shield operation to Raqqa after al-Bab.

Turkish troops will not remain in Syria once the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is defeated and they will leave the lands to their "true owners," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, while vowing to advance the ongoing Euphrates Shield operation to Raqqa after al-Bab.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said on Feb. 10 that Operation Euphrates Shield was an obligatory operation for Turkey to protect its borders. 

With the success of the al-Bab operation, Euphrates Shield Operation will reach its goal, Kurtulmuş said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster HaberTürk. 

The Euphrates Shield operation has made important progress  in capturing al-Bab and the next target will be the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, calling on the new U.S. administration to not rely on the People's Protection Units (PYD) in the expected military offensive on Raqqa. 

The United States has provided an alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with armored vehicles for the first time, a U.S. official and a spokesman for the anti-jihadist force stated on Jan. 31.

Turkey's top security board has indirectly urged the United States that "supplying weapons to terror organizations" would only "help terror gain strength and spread it," in an apparent reference to Washington's policy of allying with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Arab and Kurdish forces in northern Syria, has received armored vehicles from the US, indicating increased support from Washington under the administration of President Donald Trump.
A small number of vehicles arrived four or five days ago, SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters.

A U.S.-backed coalition of Syrian Kurdish Arab fighters fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria has received U.S. armored vehicles for the first time and a promise of new American support, a coalition spokesman said on Jan. 31.