Kurdish Politician: US Blocking Syrian Army Advances in Raqqa

“The fight against the ISIL, specially in Northern Syria, is not only a battle against the Takfiri terrorist group, but a battle against the Turkish army that are disguised as terrorists,” Jamal Mullah Mahmoud, Kurdish politician and member of the presiding board of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said on Saturday.

He reiterated that the SDF is in its final phase of preparatory measures to initiate the Raqqa liberation operation, and said, “The only concern of the SDF is the unclear stance of the US, specially concerning the ongoing military operation there.”

Mullah Mahmoud underlined that the Iraqi army is in a high-level of military preparedness and acts in full coordination with Kurdish Peshmerga forces and volunteer forces (Hashd al-Shaabi), indicating there is no problem with military preparedness in Iraq to successfully end the Mosul battle.

He, meantime, pointed to Turkey’s military incursion in Syria, and said, “Turkey has voiced its readiness to help to the Raqqa operations if the SDF forces stay away from the operations and the US is apparently supporting this while we are fully against Turkey’s presence in the Raqqa battle.”

In relevant remarks in late July, Leader of the Syrian Kurdistan’s Democratic Union Party Salih Muslim Mohammed said Ankara is using the ISIL terrorist group as a means to pressure the Kurdish people.

“The ISIL is a destructive tool of Turkey for changing the demography of Kurdish regions,” the London-based Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper quoted Muslim as saying.

The statements by the Kurdish leader came after Turkey attacked the Kurdish PKK positions in Northern Iraq.

Turkey’s air force attacked the ISIL positions in Syria and Kurdish PKK militants in Northern Iraq on Friday night.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that 590 suspected ISIL and PKK members had been arrested.

This follows a week which saw a bomb attack blamed on ISIL which killed 32 people in the Turkish town of Suruc, most of them young Kurds from Southern Turkey or Northern Syria. The gathering was meant to discuss future plans for the Kurdish town of Kobani in Northern Syria.