Warning of ISIS Plots Against West, U.S. Plans Assault on Raqqa - The New York Times - 0 views
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The fight to retake Raqqa, the Syrian city that serves as the capital of the Islamic State, must begin soon — within weeks — to disrupt planning believed to be underway there to stage terrorist attacks on the West
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isolate the city begin soon to prevent attacks on the West that could be launched or planned from the militants’ capital.
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American officials are sweeping aside objections from Turkey and moving forward with plans to rely on a ground fighting force that includes Kurdish militia fighters in Syria.
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Kurdish militia will make up the bulk of the operation, General Townsend said many of the more than 300 American Special Operations forces now in Syria would help recruit, train and equip local forces in and around Raqqa who are predominantly Syrian Arabs.
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neither the Turks nor the Syrian Kurds view the recapture of Raqqa as one of their top priorities — unlike Washington.
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Phase one, he said, is what the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State has been doing for months:
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Phase three will be the fight for Raqqa itself, which American officials say they hope will be conducted mostly by Syrian Arabs, given that the city is majority Sunni Arab.
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Coming out of Manbij, we found links to individuals and plot streams to France, the United States, other European countries,” he said.