The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the people of the majority Arab city and surrounding province would decide their own future “within the framework of a decentralized, federal, democratic Syria”. The US-backed SDF, which is led by Kurdish militia fighters and also includes Arabs, captured the Syrian de-facto capital of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate this week in a decisive defeat for the group that had ruled over millions of people from central Syria to northern Iraq. Turkey views the rise of Kurdish power in Syria as a threat to its national security, viewing Kurdish groups in northern Syria as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is fighting a three-decade insurgency in Turkey. The SDF, dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, has established control over swathes of northern Syria in operations backed by the US-led coalition against Islamic State, mostly avoiding conflict with Russian-backed pro-government forces. With Islamic State’s self-declared “caliphate” crumbling in its last remaining Syrian strongholds, Assad’s Russian allies said on Thursday the fight with the jihadist group would soon be over.

Source: bd News24 October 20, 2017 15:00 UTC