The People’s Protection Units (YPG), also known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in mainstream media, consisting mainly of Kurds, are going to establish control over the town of Tabqa and a hydroelectric station, located there on the Euphrates River, the Izvestiya newspaper reported on Tuesday. The combat actions are conducted within the framework of an operation to encircle Raqqa, which is considered as the capital of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
As Abd Salam Ali, a representative of the Democratic Alliance, a Syrian Kurdish party, told Izvestiya, the YPG intends to knock the IS out from Tabqa town and a dam, located there.
According to Ali, “the battle is currently taking place to the north-west of Raqqa, which is considered as the capital of terrorists. On December 25, there were armed clashes in the area of the Jaabar Castle, [located on the coast of the country’s largest reservoir, Lake Assad].” He also noted that now the YPG moves towards Tabqa and has a task to knock IS terrorists out from there. In this way, the troops are just 45 km from Raqqa. After the establishing control over Tabqa, the YPG will continue to move to the east in order to encircle and close the ring around the capital of terrorists. Ali also added that the next stage will be storming of the city, which will be implemented only by Arab units of the YPG.
At the same time, the representative of the Democratic Alliance added that the YPG can act freely without fear that terrorists will blow up the dam, as in this case, the formed water flow would washed off the city of Raqqah.
The YPG announced the launch of the operation to liberate the city from terrorists on November 6. The operation was dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates. A specially established Coordinating Council commands the military actions. The US air power supports the advancing troops from the air.
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