BEIRUT: Raqqa will be part of a decentralised federal Syria now the city has been freed from the militant Islamic State group, the US-backed militias that captured it said on Friday, tying its political future to Kurdish-led autonomy plans for northern Syria.

The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the people of the majority Arab city and surrounding province would decide their own future “within the framework of a decentralised, federal, democratic Syria”.

In a declaration formally announcing Raqqa’s liberation from IS after four months of battles, the SDF pledged “to protect the frontiers of the province against all external threats”, and to hand control to a civil council from the city.

The US-backed SDF, which is led by Kurdish militia fighters and also includes Arabs, captured the Syrian de-facto capital of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate this week in a decisive defeat for the group that had ruled over millions of people from central Syria to northern Iraq.

In Syria, the fight against IS has taken place amid a wider, multi-sided civil war between the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Iran and Russia, and an array of rebel groups supported by other powers.

Kurdish-led authorities in other parts of the north say they want a federal system that would allow regions to rule themselves without central control by the centre. They have been moving ahead with plans set it up, despite discouragement from their US allies and strong opposition from both Turkey and the Syrian government in Damascus.

Turkey views the rise of Kurdish power in Syria as a threat to its national security, viewing Kurdish groups in northern Syria as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is fighting a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2017