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A8 world news
Wednesday 18 OctOber 2017

US-backed forces celebrate fall of IS ‘capital’ of Raqqa

By SARAH EL DEEB shields and tried to stop
ZEINA KARAM them from leaving the city.
Associated Press In a reminder of the hu-
BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed manitarian catastrophe un-
Syrian forces celebrated in leashed by the fighting, the
the devastated streets of international charity group
Raqqa on Tuesday after Save the Children said
gaining control of the north- that camps housing tens of
ern city that once was the thousands of people who
heart of the Islamic State’s fled Raqqa are “bursting at
self-styled caliphate, deal- the seams.”
ing a major defeat to the It said about 270,000 peo-
extremist group that has ple from Raqqa are still in
seen its territory shrink ever critical need of aid.
smaller since summer. With the high level of de-
Militants took over the vi- struction reported in and
brant metropolis on the around Raqqa, most fami-
Euphrates River in 2014, lies have nowhere to go
transforming it into the epi- and are likely to be in
center of their brutal rule, camps for months or years.
where opponents were Ahmed, the SDF official,
beheaded and terror plots said the hardest part will be
hatched. This frame grab from video released Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017 and provided by Hawar News Agency, administering and rebuild-
a Syrian Kurdish activist-run media group, shows fighters from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic
It took thousands of bombs Forces (SDF) celebrating their victory in Raqqa, Syria. U.S.-backed Syrian forces liberated the city ing Raqqa.
dropped by the U.S.-led co- of Raqqa from Islamic State militants on Tuesday, a senior commander for the force said, adding The group has appointed a
alition and more than four that clearing operations were underway to remove land mines left behind and search for the civilian administration of lo-
months of grueling house- extremist group’s sleeper cells. cals to rebuild the city, but
to-house battles for the Syr- (Hawar News Agency via AP) larger questions loom.
ian Democratic Forces to personnel carriers, and show of force that was a in the day. The SDF is a multi-ethnic
recapture Raqqa, marking hoisting yellow SDF flags sign of things to come. Col. Ryan Dillon, the Bagh- force, but its Kurdish lead-
a new chapter in the fight around Naim, or Paradise SDF commanders later visit- dad-based spokesman for ership harbors ambitions
against the group whose Square. ed Raqqa’s sports stadium, the U.S.-led coalition, was of autonomous rule over a
once vast territory has The infamous square was which IS had turned into more cautious, saying only Kurdish region in Syria that
been reduced to a handful the site of public behead- a notorious prison. Dozens that “more than 90 per- now includes the Arab-
of towns in Syria and Iraq. ings and other killings by of militants who refused to cent” of Raqqa had been majority Raqqa, leading
“Liberating Raqqa is a tri- the militants. surrender made their last cleared. to concerns of a possible
umph for humanity, espe- Bodies and severed heads stand earlier Tuesday holed He estimated about 100 IS backlash among the city’s
cially women,” who suf- would be displayed there up inside. militants were still in the city Sunni Arab population.
fered the most under IS, for days, mounted on posts “Immortal martyrs!” chant- and said he expects the He also met tribal leaders
said Ilham Ahmed, a senior and labeled with their al- ed the men and women in SDF to encounter “pockets and urged them to work
member of the SDF political leged crimes, according to SDF uniforms, saluting their of resistance” during the closely with the SDF, pre-
wing. residents who later dubbed comrades who died bat- clearing operations. venting the government
“It is a salvation for the will it “Hell Square.” tling for the city. The battle of Raqqa has of Syrian President Bashar
to live an honorable life. Crumbled and flattened According to the coali- killed more than 1,000 civil- Assad from using any divi-
It is a defeat to the forces buildings stood behind tion, about 1,100 SDF forces ians, many of them in co- sions between them, ac-
of darkness,” said Ahmed, the fighters as they drove have been killed fighting IS alition airstrikes in recent cording to the Furat FM, an
speaking to The Associated around the square, a sign in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour. months, and displaced activist-run news agency.
Press from Ein Issa, just north of the massive destruction “Military operations in tens of thousands of people An immediate challenge
of Raqqa. the city has suffered since Raqqa have ceased and who face the prospect of was clearing Raqqa of
Fighters from the SDF cel- the militants took over. we are now combing returning to ruined homes. thousands of land mines
ebrated by chanting and It was in Naim Square that the city for sleeper cells The coalition and residents and booby traps that have
honking their horns as they the extremists paraded and cleaning it from land who managed to escape killed returning civilians and
spun doughnuts with their tanks and military hard- mines,” Brig. Gen. accused the militants of senior SDF commanders in
Humvees and armored ware in 2014 in a chilling Talal Sillo told the AP earlier using civilians as human recent days.q