The U.S. and Russia-backed Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has offered the people of Raqqa the opportunity to join its autonomous federal region in northern Syria once the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is pushed out of the city.

The U.S.-allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria have reportedly acknowledged “direct relations with Russia,” noting the Kremlin is providing training.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based group that uses ground sources to monitor the war in Syria, reports that “there is not truth” to the Turkish military’s claim that it is close to capturing the Syrian town of al-Bab, an Islamic State stronghold located 20 miles from the Turkish border.