"Liberated" Raqqa 5 Months Later: What Happened to the City After America Razed it to the Ground?
The operation to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from ISIS started exactly one year ago. The Western coalition fought for the city for almost five months, razing it to the ground. Today, Fox News, an American TV channel, published a video of what Raqqa looks like now. Reporters went there hoping to see reconstruction work underway. Instead, they confirmed that the city never received any of the multi-million-dollar aid promised by the US government.
Anton Stepanenko, our war correspondent, reports from Syria.
The footage of Raqqa at war, bombarded by the US-led Coalition, doesn't look very different from today's, post-war Raqqa. Although it's been over seven months since the so-called liberation, the city still lies in ruins. The only difference is that some of the streets were cleared of debris while the territory was being demined. According to Human Rights Watch, between October 2017 and January 2018, 491 people were killed here, including 157 children.
There aren't many people in the city. There's nowhere for them to return. And, if truth be told, they have no reason to come back. There's no electricity, no water, and very little food in Raqqa. Raqqa's suburbs look relatively intact.
Apparently, the militants offered little resistance on their way out. The majority of Raqqa's current citizens are now living here. The Pentagon's statement that the US has no defined role in reconstruction efforts in the city directly affects local citizens. Donald Trump froze $200 million earmarked for recovery efforts in Syria.
The closer to the city center, the more ruins. What was known and what journalists had seen, has now been confirmed by international experts from Amnesty International human rights group. The US-led coalition attacks in the Syrian city of Raqqa violated international humanitarian law, putting civilians at risk. This was stated in a human rights group's report. According to its authors, the US-led coalition did not use modern precision weapons in Raqqa, for costs reasons.
According to witnesses the report refers to, entire neighborhoods were constantly under attack, even when there were no ISIS militants in sight. According to the United Nations, only one fifth of the buildings survived the attacks. The majority of people who used to live in Raqqa now have to stay in refugee camps.
Anton Stepanenko, Artem Grigoryan, Vesti, Raqqa province, Syria.