U.S.-backed forces hail fall of terrorists’ “capital”
BEIRUT » U.S.-backed Syrian forces celebrated in the devastated streets of Raqqa on Tuesday after gaining control of the northern city that once was the heart of the Islamic State’s selfstyled caliphate, dealing a major defeat to the terrorist group that has seen its territory shrink ever smaller since summer.
Terrorists took over the vibrant metropolis on the Euphrates River in 2014, transforming it into the epicenter of their brutal rule, where opponents were beheaded and terror plots hatched.
It took thousands of bombs dropped by the U.S.-led coalition and more than four months of grueling house-to-house battles for the Syrian Democratic Forces to recapture Raqqa, marking a new chapter in the fight against the group whose once vast territory has been reduced to a handful of towns in Syria and Iraq.
“Liberating Raqqa is a triumph for humanity, especially women,” who suffered the most under the Islamic State, said Ilham Ahmed, a senior member of the SDF political wing. “It is a salvation for the will to live an honorable life. It is a defeat to the forces of darkness.”
Fighters from the SDF celebrated by chanting and honking their horns as they spun doughnuts with their Humvees and armored personnel carriers and hoisted yellow SDF flags around Naim, or Paradise Square.
The infamous square was the site of public beheadings and other killings by the terrorists. Bodies and severed heads would be displayed there for days, mounted on posts and labeled with their alleged crimes, according to residents who later dubbed it “Hell Square.”
Col. Ryan Dillon, the Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, was more cautious, saying only that “more than 90 percent” of Raqqa had been cleared. He estimated about 100 Islamic State terrorists were still in the city.
The battle of Raqqa has killed more than 1,000 civilians, many of them in coalition airstrikes in recent months, and displaced tens of thousands of people who face the prospect of returning to ruined homes.
In a reminder of the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by the fighting, the international charity group Save the Children said about 270,000 people from Raqqa are still in critical need of aid. With the high level of destruction reported in and around Raqqa, most families have nowhere to go and are likely to be in camps for months or years.
Ahmed, the SDF official, said the hardest part will be administering and rebuilding Raqqa. The group has appointed a civilian administration of locals to rebuild the city, but larger questions loom.
An immediate challenge was clearing Raqqa of thousands of land mines and booby traps that have killed returning civilians and senior SDF commanders in recent days.
One of those killed Monday was the head of the internal security force affiliated with the SDF.
Another challenge for the troops is searching the tunnels that were dug by the terrorists around the city, Dillon said.
“This will take some time, to say that the city is completely clear,” he told The Associated Press. “We still suspect that there are still (Islamic State) fighters that are within the city in small pockets.”