The Syrian city of Raqqa will become a part of Syrian Kurdistan, the Federal Democratic System of Rojava and Northern Syria, following its liberation from Islamic State (IS) militants, a representative of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Iraqi Kurdistan, Gharib Hassou, said Thursday.
Last week, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance announcedplans to liberate Raqqa from the IS group. On Tuesday, the SDF, with assistance from a US-led international coalition, launched an offensive to free the northern part of the Syrian province.
“Since the assault on Raqqa is carried out by the SDF, it makes sense that after its recapture, the city will become a part of the democratic federal system created by us in northern Syria,” Hassou told RIA Novosti.
The Syrian government cannot do anything to oppose the city joining the Kurdish federal system, as “the Syrian army failed to do something with the terrorists in Raqqa,” Hassou said.
He noted that the Syrian army was not taking part in the offensive to retake Raqqa.
The SDF which has formed in October 2015, of the powerful Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) with smaller Arab, Christian and Turkmen militias in a coalition intended to take on Islamic State, has a total of about 25,000 Kurdish fighters and about 5,000 Arab fighters.
Syrian Kurds have established three autonomous zones, or “cantons”, and Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria) since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Syria’s Kurds on March 17, 2016 declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan, in the country’s north. The initiative was criticized by the Syrian government.
Nearly 3 million Kurds live in Syria’s Kurdish north.
Since 2013, Raqqa has been held by the IS group, which is outlawed in the United States and Russia. It has served as the group’s de facto capital and witnessed countless atrocities.
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