US-backed militia says Raqqa to be part of ‘federal Syria’

Raqqa will be part of a decentralized federal Syria after the city has been freed from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), the US-backed militias that captured it said on Friday. 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 decentralized, federal, democratic Syria,” Reuters reports. In a declaration announcing Raqqa’s liberation 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.