U.S. Air Force Col. John L. Dorrian, U.S. spokesman for the U.S. -led anti-Islamic State worldwide coalition called the Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve, made the announcement during a webcast press conference on Wednesday.
Sources said technicians at the dam had fled as fighting intensified in recent days, and on Thursday a fix team was on standby to enter and assess any damage to the structure after the SDF finished clearing mines laid by ISIL.
A USA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, clarified that Mattis was not signaling a new agreement on a Turkish role in the offensive or any decision on whether to arm the Kurdish fighters.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump approved a plan to arm YPG, fighting Daesh within the US-backed SDF, saying that the measure was necessary to ensure a victory over terrorists in Raqqa, despite objections from Turkey. The fighters, which are Kurdish-led but also include some Arab fighters, said they expelled the extremists from the Tabqa Dam and a nearby town, also called Tabqa.
The US military command in the Middle East, Centcom, confirmed the liberation of Tabqa, situated on the Euphrates River about 55 kilometres upstream from Raqqa.
It also came a day after the Trump administration announced it will supply the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with heavier weapons, a decision that infuriated Turkey, which views the main Kurdish militia in the group as an extension of an outlawed rebel movement fighting an insurgency in its southeast. He earlier said that after Tabqa is secured, the Syrian Kurdish-led forces will continue operations to "isolate and seize Raqqa".
The spokesman for the Kurdish militia that forms the backbone of the fighting force known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, told The Associated Press on Thursday that his group will seek "neighborly relations" with Turkey. "It's not a good situation", he said.
Obama's Chicago library is going to be a little bit flashy
The former president made the first public appearance of his post presidential life last week at the University of Chicago. The goal was to "create an institution that will train the next generation of leadership", Obama told a packed audience.
For the US administration, which is skeptical that the Turkish-backed force is large enough or sufficiently trained, the decision sets Trump's wish for quick battlefield victories against the need to maintain its strategic alliance with Turkey.
The Trump administration says it will supply the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG is the main component, with heavier weapons ahead of a push on the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the IS group's de facto capital.
The US-led coalition said a first consignment of weapons was already in place for delivery and could be dispatched to the Kurds "very quickly". Unnerved by the Kurdish advances along the border, Turkey sent troops into Syria past year to help allied Syrian forces battle IS and block the SDF.
Turkey says that the PYD and YPG are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Kurdish Marxist-inspired militia which is officially listed as a terrorist group by several countries and even worldwide organisations such as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the EU. The U.S. and other Western nations also view the PKK as a terrorist group.
The focus is now on Raqa, the de-facto Syrian capital of IS's self-proclaimed "caliphate". Dorrian said the priority now is to protect those who remain.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that its fighters have "completely liberated" Tabqa as well as an important nearby dam, which are both located about 25 miles west of Raqqa, the BBC News reported.
It is the highest-ranking meeting of diplomats from Ankara and Washington since the United States authorized the further arming of Coalition ground forces on Tuesday, ahead of the anticipated Raqqa offensive.
Comments