Kurdish-backed militia launches Raqqa operation as another declares war on Turkey
Coming just days after the Pentagon began distributing weapons to the YPG, Turkey could easily construe threats of escalation by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons as proof that US support for the Syrian Kurds emboldens the Kurdistan Workers Party.
The Syrian Kurdish militia and its Arab allies known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) formally announced the start of the fight to liberate Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State, just as another Kurdish group declared it was escalating its war against Turkey.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) declared today in an incendiary statement that just as Turkey had launched “a ruthless war against the Kurdish people,” it too would be more ruthless than ever before against the Turkish state. TAK, which murdered numerous civilians in a string of previous attacks, vowed to target Turkey’s already buckling tourism industry, igniting the “fires of hell” in Turkish cities. The statement read, “We call our brave Kurdish girls and boys to take part in this war of revenge, this struggle for honor.”
Should TAK act on its threats, it will give the government further justification to continue its state of emergency slapped on in the aftermath of the failed July coup. It may also further complicate Turkey’s troubled relations with the United States, as TAK acts as the urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the militant group that has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since 1984. The PKK is in turn closely linked to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian Kurdish militia that is the United States’ top ally in the fight against IS.
Turkey insists the three groups are all branches of the same terror tree and is furious that the United States ignored its warnings against directly arming the YPG for the Raqqa campaign. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim voiced Turkish anger again today, telling the parliament that Turkey had warned the United States against the risks of "eradicating one terror group with another terror group." Yildirim said, "To support terror groups does not behoove our alliance."
