(MENAFN) The top U.S. military commander in Iraq said on Wednesday Kurdish YPG militia fighters will be included as a part of the force to isolate the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa.
On detail, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend also said in a news briefing that the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State wished to move urgently to isolate Raqqa because of concerns about the group using the city as a base to plan and launch attacks against targets abroad.
Moreover, the United States regards the YPG as an ally in its fight against Islamic State, but Turkey regards it as a terrorist organization because of its links with ethnic Kurdish militants involved in a three-decade insurgency within Turkey.
Kurdish militia groups have played a large role over the past year in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed umbrella group, as it has seized large areas of territory from Islamic State, laying the groundwork for an assault on Raqqa.
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