U.S.-backed
rebels said on Sunday they were launching an operation to retake the Syrian
city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State.
The attack
ratchets up pressure on the militant group at a critical moment, with its
fighters already battling an offensive by Iraqi security forces on their
remaining Iraqi stronghold in the northern city of Mosul.
The
U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab
armed groups, first announced on Sunday that
a campaign to retake Raqqa would
begin within hours, with U.S. forces providing air cover. Soon afterwards, it
said that the operation, called Euphrates Anger, had begun.
"The
general command of the Syria Democratic Forces announces the blessed start of
its major military campaign to liberate the city of Raqqa," Jehan Sheikh
Amad, an SDF spokeswoman, told a news conference in the Syrian town of Ain
Issa.
The SDF called
on Raqqa's civilians to avoid areas where Islamic State militants are present
and to go to "liberated territory".
An attack on
Raqqa has been long expected, with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter saying on
Oct. 25 that the battle to retake it would "overlap" with the assault
on Mosul.
The top U.S.
military commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said last
month that the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State wanted 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.
France has
also pushed for simultaneous action on both fronts. President Francois Hollande
said last month there was evidence that Islamic State fighters were fleeing to
Raqqa, and that everything must be done to stop them regrouping there.
French Defence
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday that an offensive on Raqqa should be
launched while the battle to push the group out of Mosul is under way.
"We have
to go to Raqqa ... it will automatically be local forces that will liberate
Raqqa even if French forces, U.S. forces, the coalition contribute with air
strikes to dismantle Daesh," Le Drian told Europe 1 radio, using an Arabic
acronym for Islamic State.
"Mosul-Raqqa
can't be disassociated because Islamic State and the territories it occupies
span that area," he said.
Since it was
formed in early 2015, the SDF has seized large swathes of territory along the
Syria-Turkey border from Islamic State and pushed the jihadist group back to
within 30 km (18 miles) of Raqqa.
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