Syrian Kurds will be the fighting force that will encircle the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in the coming weeks, but may not be the force that actually enters and liberates the Syrian city, the U.S. military said Thursday.
The current plan is to use members of the Syrian Arab Coalition, an umbrella group of roughly 30,000-40,000 fighters, to surround Raqqa and cut off Islamic State fighters, while negotiations with Turkey continue about its desire to play a role in the liberation of the city.
“Right now I don’t think that all the forces that’ll be involved in that liberation campaign for Raqqa are yet trained,” said Col. John Dorrian, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
“That’ll be the part of the effort, as well as ongoing diplomatic discussions with our allies and our partners and coalition members to make sure that we get everybody on the same page.
“The ongoing dialogue is about who will liberate the city,” he added. “There may be a role for a variety of forces, all the options are on the table.”
The latest update on the war plans would seem to signal the actual Raqqa offensive could be early next year, instead of the coming weeks.
In Paris last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter caused some confusion when he indicated in an interview with NBC that the offensive to free Raqqa from Islamic State control would start “in the next few weeks.”
The confusion resulted from Carter’s response to the interviewer, who said, “So the assault on Raqqa will start in weeks not months?” To which Carter replied, “Weeks from now, yes, that’s correct.”
The use of the term “assault” seemed to indicate the “liberation” phase would begin this year, while U.S. military officials, including the U.S. top commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, have said the next step is the “isolation” phase of the campaign.
Asked Thursday if Carter misspoke, Dorrian said simply, “No.”
Dorrian said while some more local forces have to be recruited and trained for the liberation phase, the period of instruction is not long, only a few weeks.
“A lot of the fighters that get involved in this type of activity are not a bunch of rookies. They are people who have done some of this type of fighting before to protect their own villages and their own areas.”
The desire, Dorrian said, is to enlarge the Arab contingent of the assault force because Raqqa is primarily an Arab city.
