The US-led coalition, consisting of over 70 members, including Turkey, has been conducting military operations in Syria without Damascus' approval or UN mandate.

According to Syria's Information Minister Mohammed Ramiz Tarjaman, Syria considers the entry of the Turkish military into Idlib, and the US military's presence in al-Tanf as aggression violating Syria's sovereignty and UN resolutions, and the country has the right to respond, as he claimed in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"We do not consider any city liberated until the Syrian Arab army enters it and lifts the Syrian flag over it. This applies to any point of the Syrian map," Tardjaman said. 

According to him, Damascus regards the withdrawal of the Daesh terror group (banned in Russia) from Raqqa as a positive event, but it still requires the Syrian troops to enter into the city for it to be fully liberated 'regardless of whether Daesh is there or some other faction or organization'.

The Syrian Democratic Forces captured Raqqa on October 20, after four years of Daesh control. The SDF operation, backed by Washington, to liberate the city from the Daesh self-proclaimed caliphate was launched in early June. US President Donald Trump called the SDF victory in the region a "critical breakthrough" and said that a "transition into a new phase" would start soon.

The US-supported alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias are also currently conducting a military operation in the area of Deir ez-Zor. The day before, they announced of the restored control over the Al Omar oil field in the province.

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