BEIRUT -- The main Syrian Kurdish force fighting Islamic State militants in northern Syria said Friday that it has enough fighters to take the extremists' self-declared capital of Raqqa with the help of the U.S.-led coalition.
The comments by Cihan Sheikh Ehmed, the spokesman of the Syrian Democratic Forces, came as U.S. troops are playing a bigger role on the ground in the battle to capture Raqqa in northern Syria.
Gen. Joseph Votel, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, signaled Thursday that there will be a larger and longer U.S. military presence in Syria to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and quell friction within the complicated mix of warring factions there.
The Democratic Forces spokesman said its numbers are increasing with more residents of newly liberated areas from the Islamic State joining the ethnically-mixed force, which has been the most effective group on the ground in Syria in the battle against the extremist group.
"We have enough forces to liberate Raqqa with the help of the coalition," Sheikh Ehmed said, adding that their troops received intelligence that the Islamic State group is moving some of its leaders outside the city and are digging tunnels in preparation for intense street battles -- much like those underway in neighboring Iraq where the Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, are fighting to rout the Islamic State from the western part of the city of Mosul, the extremists' last remaining urban stronghold in Iraq.
But the spokesman's remarks are likely to anger Turkey, which has insisted that Syrian opposition fighters backed by Turkey should lead the offensive on Raqqa rather than the Democratic Forces, which is dominated by the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People's Protection Units. Turkey has declared the Protection Units a terrorist organization and considers it to be linked to its own homegrown Kurdish insurgency.
As the Democratic Forces advanced, U.S.-led coalition aircraft pounded areas in the city of Raqqa and its outskirts, according to the U.S. Central Command and Syrian opposition activists.
The U.S. command said 13 strikes engaged targets including eight ISIS tactical units, four vehicles, a fighting position and an Islamic State headquarters near Raqqa.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, reported airstrikes on Raqqa as well as its outskirts.
Also Friday, Turkey's military said Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces have killed -- or "neutralized" -- 71 Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria this week. The operations are part of Turkey's monthslong incursion into its war-torn neighbor in a push against the Islamic State but also in an effort to restrict the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Since the Turkish operation started in August, the joint Turkish and Syrian opposition forces have killed as many as 2,647 Islamic State militants and 425 Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria, said a Turkish military statement. It added that more than 772 square miles in northern Syria are now under control of the Turkish-backed forces.
Syria blasted Turkey over its intervention in the country and support for opposition forces trying to remove President Bashar Assad from power, saying it has killed thousands, and called on the U.N. Security Council to press Ankara to withdraw its troops.
Friday's statement came a day after Syria's state media reported that Turkish troops shelled Syrian army positions in the north, killing and wounding several troops.
Democratic Forces fighters have been on the offensive in the Raqqa area since November and have closed major supply roads used by the Islamic State. They have captured large areas from the Islamic State since then under the cover of airstrikes of the U.S.-led coalition.
Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser and Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/11/2017