The SDF stressed in a statement that the Daesh* terrorists took "advantage of an imminent Turkish invasion", adding that "clashes still ongoing". The SDF has not provided further details including casualties or damage inflicted by the terrorist attack.
Raqqa was seized by Syrian opposition forces in 2013 and then captured by Daesh, which then proclaimed the city its de facto capital. In 2016, the SDF, backed by the US-led military coalition, launched a campaign to liberate the city. The operation culminated in the 2017 Battle of Raqqa, which brought the city back under SDF control.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed a military operation in northern Syria east of the Euphrates in coming days, after the United States announced it would pull out of the region.
The impending Turkish operation is likely to be an assault on Kurdish fighters who led the armed anti-terror coalition known as the SDF, which the US heavily subsidized to spearhead successful attacks on the Daesh terrorists.
The United States, which has traditionally backed the Kurds, has made it clear that it will not "support or be involved in" the Turkish military incursion. Washington has begun to withdraw its troops from the area. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said that his country will defend its territory and will not allow a Turkish military occupation of "even an inch of Syrian land."
Amid the ongoing Syrian civil war, the Kurds, controlling the country's northern areas, announced the creation of the federal region of Rojava in 2016, with Damascus observing that the move carried no legal weight. The Syrian government has repeatedly urged the Kurds to join a dialogue and has slammed their reliance on US forces illegally operating in the country.
A senior SDF commander, Mazloum Kobani Abdi, told NBC on Monday that Kurdish-led forces do not rule out backtracking on their pro-US stance and joining with Syrian President Bashar Assad to fight a looming Turkish military offensive in the north of the Arab republic.
*Daesh (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.