[Al-Monitor] The long delayed battle to capture Raqqa is imminent after the United States formally announced that it has begun to arm the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the coalition’s premier ally in the war against the Islamic State in Syria.The battle for Raqqa is near as arms from the United States are dispersed among the coalition’s Kurdish ally, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units.
An official from the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), the umbrella group that brings together the YPG and its Arab allies from the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC), told Al-Monitor that the offensive will begin in the coming weeks. "It's unlikely, but ... maybe even tomorrow [June 2]," the SDF official said.
The noose around Raqqa, the capital of the IS "caliphate," has been tightening as thousands of YPG and Arab fighters advised by US special operations forces have encircled it from the north, the west and the east. They have now pushed to within about 2 miles of the mainly Arab city where IS will likely put up fierce resistance, as it has in Mosul in neighboring Iraq.
Turkey insists that the YPG poses a threat to its national security because of the group’s tight links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militia that has been fighting since 1984 for self-rule inside Turkey.
The United States finally decided to take the leap, however, and last month President Donald Trump signed a waiver authorizing the Pentagon to directly arm the YPG only days before meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington.
In sharp contrast to its earlier bluster, Ankara’s reaction has been one of resentful resignation punctuated by the occasional anti-American squawk. Veiled threats to rescind coalition access to the Incirlik Air Base have all but evaporated. And Turkey’s lethal April 25 airstrike on YPG positions inside northern Syria that endangered US special forces in the area seems, in hindsight, to have been more of a one-off aimed at massaging nationalist domestic sensibilities.
Still, Stein reckons that Turkish pressure made a difference in the equipment that is being provided to the YPG. Referring to anti-tank guided missiles, or ATGMs, Stein noted, "It looks like the SDF has been given ATGMs that can’t kill Turkish tanks but will be able to take out IS VBIEDs." He added, "US special operations forces are also in the area and pictures suggest that they have the Javelin missile, so the US and YPG could be splitting ATGM duties." The Javelin is a US-made portable ATGM. The United States has pledged to track all the equipment it is providing to the YPG and to halt deliveries if they wind up in PKK hands or are used to target Turkey.