DAMASCUS, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Friday that the civil council formed in the recently-taken province of Raqqa in northern Syria was coordinating with Arab and European countries for the reconstruction process.
Talal Silo, spokesman of the SDF, said in a statement that the civil council of Raqqa was cooperating with the foreign countries for rebuilding Raqqa, after the Islamic State (IS) was driven out.
Earlier in the day, the SDF said that the council would administer Raqqa, after the SDF captured the province recently following a four-month offensive on IS.
"Raqqa and its countryside will be a part of a democratic, decentralized and federal Syria, where the people of the province will run their own affairs," the SDF said in a statement.
The SDF said it would hand over the control of Raqqa to the "Civil Council of Raqqa," which has been formed by the SDF last April with a joint Kurdish-Arab leadership.
As for the security part, the "internal security forces" will be tasked with securing the lives of the civilians in Raqqa.
The SDF, meanwhile, pledged to protect the borders of the province from all "external threats."
The group, allied with Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians led by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and backed by the United States, said it had secured the evacuation of 450,000 civilians from Raqqa.
It expressed gratitude to the U.S.-led coalition for their assistance to the battles to capture Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS.
Meanwhile, the group urged the international organizations to help rebuild Raqqa, 80 percent of which is destroyed, according to a recent report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The liberation of Raqqa constitutes the last chapter of the epic of confrontation and the fight against the IS in Syria," the statement read.
The Syrian government, whose forces are also fighting IS separately, so far has no comment on the statement, but previous remarks suggested the government wanted to restore all Syrian regions under its control.
