Not all of the United States' coalition allies share its desire to start targeting Raqqa in the next few weeks. For the most part, their dissent stems from the city's composition: Raqqa is predominantly Arab , which means a sizable Arab force would be needed to seize and hold it. Though the Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces include several Arab units, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) continue to make up an overwhelming share of the group. In an effort to remedy this problem, the United States deployed 250 special operations forces to Syria in April to speed up the recruitment and training of Arab fighters ahead of the push for Raqqa. According to the congressional testimony of U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Syrian Democratic Forces had about 6,000 Arab fighters (20 percent of the force) at the time.