McCain secretly visited the Syrian Kurds before the visit to Erdogan
Before his visit to Turkey and meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Senator John McCain made a secret trip to the North of Syria, in areas under Kurdish control.
Republican Senator John McCain made a secret trip to the North of Syria, which discussed the possibility of accelerating the operation against the terrorist organization “Islamic state” (banned in Russia) with the us military and representatives of the Kurds. This is with reference to American officials, the newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
According to sources, McCain visited the Syrian city of Kobani on the border with Turkey, which since 2012 is controlled by the Kurds.
The publication notes that McCain became the first US Congressman, who visited the area. The talks focused on the upcoming storm Syrian “capital” of ISIS city Raqqa. In the Senator’s office with information about the trip to Syria was confirmed
After a trip to Syria McCain went to Turkey to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The publication notes that the United States considers the Kurds one of the main allies in the fight against ISIS, while Turkey sees danger in them. However, after talks with Erdogan McCain called the meeting “cordial and constructive”.
18 February 2017 Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said that the command of the IG began to flee Raqqa. Prior to this, the representatives of the U.S.-supported “Democratic forces of Syria” (SDF), consisting mainly of fighters of the Kurdish “people’s protection Units” (YPG) announced the beginning of the third phase of their operation to liberate Raqqa from the “Islamic state”.
For targets in and around Raqqa has also repeatedly attacked the Russian VKS aircraft, including strategic bombers Tu-95MS.
At the same time in Iraq since the fall of 2016 continues the operation for the liberation from militants of the city of Mosul. On 19 February, Iraqi authorities announced the beginning of the final stage — storming the Western part of the city.