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Raqqa operation began on June 2, US briefed Turkey beforehand: PM Yıldırım

June 04,2017 12:31

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has stated that the coalition’s operation to recapture Raqqa from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) started on the night of June 2, saying Washington briefed Ankara ahead of the operation.

“The Raqqa operation, planned earlier, was launched on the night of June 2. The U.S. conveyed the necessary information on the issue before the start of the operation,” Yıldırım said.  Reports Hurriyet Daily News.

He added that Ankara voiced its disturbance over the U.S. agreement to cooperate with the Syrian Kurdish YPG in the anti-ISIL fight, with Washington guaranteeing that its cooperation was “tactical and not long-term.”

Turkey considers the YPG, the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is also recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union. The U.S. administration started to provide weapons to the YPG upon a presidential order signed by Donald Trump in mid-May at the expense of angering its closest ally, Turkey.

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