US-backed Syrian militias say they have taken full control of Raqqa after four months of fighting. The city had served as the self-styled capital of the “Islamic State” terror group since 2014.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said battling “Islamic State” (IS) in Raqqa have flushed the last remaining militants from the city, a senior commander said Tuesday.
The Peshmerga General Command has said in a statement that the attack on Kirkuk by the Iranian Quds-backed Iraqi forces and the mainly Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi is “a flagrant declaration of war against the nation of Kurdistan,” and warned that the government of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi should pay a “heavy price” for initiating the conflict.
It said that the military incursion into the Peshmerga controlled areas in the oil-province of Kirkuk is in retaliation against the right of the people to vote on their fate, a reference to the Kurdish independence vote held last month that saw 92.7 percent of the people voting to leave Iraq.
The US-backed Syrian rebels have announced the final stage of their operation to free the former so-called Daesh “capital,” Raqqa, from terrorists.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that they have started the final assault on Raqqa after the evacuation of civilians and Daesh terrorists, who agreed to leave the city.
The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has deployed thousands of troops around the disputed oil city of Kirkuk for fear of an attack by Iraqi government army and militia, a senior official said.
“Thousands of heavily armed peshmerga units are now completely in their positions around Kirkuk,” a top aide to KRG President Masoud Barzani posted on social media on Friday.
