kurdish forces kicking isis ass

[crazyladybutterfly]

raqqa

5th march :
https://twitter.com/warcoresponted/status/838327202613702656

#Raqqa campaign being resumed, YPG-SDF fighters liberated the villages Jabb al-Khalil, Abdul Mutanabi & Muhamad al-Ayash!

[crazyladybutterfly]

Pentagon plan to seize Raqqa calls for significant increase in U.S. participation

A Pentagon plan for the coming assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State capital in Syria, calls for significant U.S. military participation, including increased Special Operations forces, attack helicopters and artillery, and arms supplies to the main Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighting force on the ground, according to U.S. officials.

The military’s favored option among several variations currently under White House review, the proposal would ease a number of restrictions on U.S. activities imposed during the Obama administration.

While the Americans would not be directly involved in ground combat, the proposal would allow them to work closer to the front line and would delegate more decision-making authority down the military line from Washington.

Approval of the Raqqa plan would effectively shut the door on Turkey’s demands that Syrian Kurds, considered terrorists by Ankara, be denied U.S. equipment and kept out of the upcoming offensive. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that arming and including the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in the operation is unacceptable and has vowed to move his own troops and Turkish-allied Syrian rebel forces toward Raqqa.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the Baghdad-based U.S. commander of the anti-Islamic State coalition, told reporters Wednesday that there was “zero evidence” that the YPG was a threat to Turkey. With some apparent exasperation, Townsend called on all anti-Islamic State forces in northern Syria to stop fighting among themselves and concentrate on the best way to beat the militants.


With the only real alternative being to use U.S. ground troops against Raqqa, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has stuck with the basic outline of the plan drawn up under Obama, officials said. The combined Syrian Arab-Kurdish force, now numbering more than 50,000, has moved steadily to within less than six miles of the outskirts of Raqqa in an isolation phase that is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Even if Turkey does direct its forces south toward Raqqa, the hope is that the difficult terrain they would have to travel would prevent them from reaching there until after the offensive is well underway.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-plan-to-seize-raqqa-calls-for-significant-increase-in-us-participation/2017/03/04/d3205386-00f3-11e7-8f41-ea6ed597e4ca_story.html?utm_term=.328c901a28b1

https://twitter.com/MKellerdal/status/838708961226420224

[crazyladybutterfly]

A thousand women march through the streets of YPG-held Sheikh Maqsood in #Aleppo, to celebrate the upcoming International Women's Day.

https://twitter.com/AfarinMamosta/status/838771187601801216

[crazyladybutterfly]

https://komnews.com/syrian-arab-coalition-now-majority-group-sdf/
‘Syrian Arab Coalition now majority group in SDF’

US Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the head of the Combined Joint Task Force against the Islamic State (IS) group, has said that the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) is now the majority group with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“I’ll say that we have watched and operated along-side the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which about 40 percent are composed of YPG Kurds, the People’s Protection Units (YPG); and about 60 percent now are composed of the Syrian Arab Coalition,” Townsend said during a teleconference this week with Pentagon reporters.

[crazyladybutterfly]

raqqa almost encircled
https://twitter.com/anfenglish/status/838715794167119872

SDF announced that the Wrath of Euphrates fighters have cut the Raqqa-Deir ez-Zor road and almost encircled the Raqqa center as they advance towards two strategic hills to this end.
http://www.anfenglish.com/news/sdf-raqqa-center-almost-encircled

[crazyladybutterfly]

i know the title is wrong (since it is the sdf and not only the kurds)