Syrian Kurdish-Arab forces set up post-Islamic State Raqqa council

Syrian Kurdish-Arab forces set up post-Islamic State Raqqa council

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Editorial Staff in Kurdistan
Kurdistan, April 18, 2017. Photo: ANHA

AIN ISSA, Syrian Kurdistan,— The US-backed Kurdish-Arab force leading the fight for the Islamic State group’s Syrian bastion Raqqa announced Tuesday the creation of a “civilian council” to administer the city after its capture.

“The civilian council of Raqqa will be charged with administering Raqqa and the surrounding province after liberation,” the Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement.

The council was announced during a meeting in Ain Issa, a former IS stronghold some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Raqqa, in northern Syria.

The SDF launched an offensive to capture Raqqa, IS’s de facto Syrian capital, in November with support from the US-led coalition.

The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish People’s Protection Units YPG militia, has driven Islamic State from large swathes of northern Syria. The alliance has over 30,000 Kurdish fighters and about 5,000 Arab fighters.

But a key question has been who will administer the city after its capture.

“The council is made up of people originally from Raqqa province. (The SDF) will entrust it with the running of the city once IS has been pushed out,” said Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Raqqa campaign.

Several tribal chiefs and local dignitaries from Raqqa participated in the meeting establishing the council, which mirrors others set up in towns captured from IS by the Kurdish-Arab force.

A military council will also be formed “soon”, according to SDF spokesman Telal Sello, and charged with security in the city after IS is expelled.

“The SDF will train people originally from Raqqa in cooperation with the international coalition to ensure the city’s security after it is freed,” Sello told AFP.

On Saturday, the SDF reached the outskirts of the key IS-held town of Tabqa, which they surrounded earlier this month.

Tabqa and the vast nearby Tabqa dam are considered key prizes in the broader offensive for Raqqa city, about 55 kilometres to the east.

In late March Kurdish-led forces have captured the military Tabqa airport in northern Syria held by Islamic State.

Last week, the SDF has announced the beginning of the fourth phase of the offensive to oust Islamic State from the Syrian city of Raqqa. The Kurdish-led SDF entered Tabqa city last Saturday located on the southern bank of the Euphrates River.

The dominance of Kurdish forces in the fight has also stirred ethnic tensions with Arab residents of the areas taken from IS.

Some three quarters of Raqqa city’s pre-war population was Sunni Arab.

U.S regards the Kurdish YPG which is part of SDF, as key ally against Islamic State and the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and has provided them with arms, air support as well as the military advisers. The Kurdish militia has seized swathes of Syria from IS.

Syrian Kurdistan’s ruling PYD has established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan. On Dec. 30, 2016 Syrian Kurds approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in Syrian Kurdistan, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.

http://ekurd.net/syrian-kurdish-raqqa-council-2017-04-19