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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.

Members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stand in the village of Hazima on the northern outskirts of the Islamic States (IS) group's Syrian bastion of Raqa on June 6, 2017.
SDF broke into Raqa less than an hour after declaring a new phase in their fight for the city. / AFP PHOTO / DELIL SOULEIMAN        (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces stand on the northern outskirts of the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion of Raqqa in the village of Hazima, Syria, June 6, 2017. — DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images

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