On May 24, the Syrian Democratic Forces (the Kurdish YPG and its allies) announced a beginning of the military campaign aimed on liberation of Northern Raqqa. The US-led coalition air power will support the operation.
The SDF announcement posted on its official Twitter account says the operation would be focused on the largely-Kurdish areas, north to the ISIS capital, Raqqa. It isn’t clear yet how far into the city the operation intended to push and how quickly.
However, the Western media argues that this operation is the part of a wider move, pursuing the goal to liberate the city of Raqqa.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia is ready to coordinate its anti-terror efforts with the US-led coalition in order to push ISIS out of Raqqa. Prospects of this idea are unclear. We remember, Washington denied reports that it agreed with Moscow to begin joint operations against terrorists in Syria.
“There is no agreement for joint air strikes with the Russians in Syria,” State Department spokesman John Kirby saidon May 20. He only noted that the sides are evaluating “proposals for a sustainable mechanism to better monitor and enforce the cessation of hostilities.”
Kurdish troops are ready for an advance: