WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Kurdish fighters make up roughly 80 percent of US-supported forces in Syria, Commander of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) said in congressional testimony on Tuesday.
"Probably about 80 percent," Votel stated when asked what percentage of Syrian Democratic Forces were Kurds.
The Syrian Democratic Forces is an alliance of mainly Kurdish, but also Arab, Assyrian, Armenian and Turkmen militias.
US-supported forces in Syria, Votel noted, are capable of seizing Raqqa, although that is currently not a plan to either take or hold the Islamic State’s capital.
The Islamic State, also known as Daesh, has been designated as a terrorist group and is outlawed in the United States, Russia and many other countries.
