Raqqa: From Ancient Capital to ISIS Stronghold

A man walks past a mosque that was damaged by airstrikes in Raqqa, eastern Syria in 2014. (Reuters)
A man walks past a mosque that was damaged by airstrikes in Raqqa, eastern Syria in 2014. (Reuters)
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Raqqa: From Ancient Capital to ISIS Stronghold

A man walks past a mosque that was damaged by airstrikes in Raqqa, eastern Syria in 2014. (Reuters)
A man walks past a mosque that was damaged by airstrikes in Raqqa, eastern Syria in 2014. (Reuters)

Raqqa was liberated on Tuesday from the grasp of the ISIS terrorist group that had turned the ancient city into its stronghold and a symbol of its atrocities.

The city has been inhabited for hundreds of years, and its peak, it enjoyed a golden age under the early Islamic empire of the Abbasids.

In 722, Caliph al-Mansour ordered the construction of the city of al-Rafiqa, which lies near Raqqa. The two cities eventually were merged into one.

In 796, the powerful caliph Haroun al-Rashid transferred his capital there from Baghdad because of its strategic location at a crossroads between Byzantium, Damascus and Iraq. It sits 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the Turkish border and about halfway between Syria's second city Aleppo and the Iraqi frontier.

He ordered major works and Raqqa was soon dotted with grand palaces and mosques.

Although the caliph's court returned to Baghdad in 809, Raqqa remained a major administrative center for the western part of the empire.

But in 1258, the city was largely destroyed by the Mongol invasion.

Before the Syrian civil war, Raqqa prospered from agriculture in the fertile valley and benefited from nearby hydroelectric dams generating power for much of the country.

On March 4, 2013, two years after Syria's war broke out, Raqqa was the first provincial capital to fall to rebels. The seized control of the military intelligence headquarters, one of the most notorious regime detention centers in the entire province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. They also destroyed a statue of late leader Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current regime head, Bashar.

Clashes however soon erupted in 2014 between ISIS and opposition fighters, including the al-Nusra Front. They culminated in ISIS seizing complete control of Raqqa in January of that same year.

In June 2014, ISIS declared its infamous “caliphate” across swathes of Syria and Iraq.

In August 2014, ISIS enjoyed complete control of Raqqa province after seized the Tabaqa airport from the regime. It then went on to impose its laws in Raqqa through intimidation and terror. It resorted to mass executions, beheadings, rape, ethnic cleansing and stoning to impose its extremist ideology on others.

Raqqa has long been coveted by multiple parties to the Syrian conflict, including the regime, Russia, Turkey and the US-led coalition set up in 2014 to tackle IS.

On November 5, 2016, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a major offensive dubbed "Wrath of the Euphrates" to seize the city.

As the SDF closed in on the city, thousands of Raqa residents were smuggled out to territory captured by the US-backed force.

After taking swathes of the surrounding province, including the key town of Tabqa and the adjacent dam, the SDF sealed off the approaches to Raqqa from the north, east and west.

In early July, SDF forces penetrated the heavily fortified heart of the city for the first time but continued to face tough resistance from the extremists.

On September 1, the SDF successfully captured the entire historic district, bringing it closer than ever to ISIS’ bastion's well-defended and densely populated heart.

By late September, they had taken control of 90 percent of the city, cornering the extremists in Raqqa's stadium, a few surrounding buildings and a major hospital.

On October 17, an SDF spokesman told AFP that the group's fighters had "taken full control of Raqqa" from ISIS.



Drone Strikes Target Army Celebration in Central Sudan, Say Witnesses

A man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
A man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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Drone Strikes Target Army Celebration in Central Sudan, Say Witnesses

A man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
A man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

Drone strikes targeted the Sudanese town of Tamboul, southeast of the capital Khartoum, on Wednesday during a celebration organized by the army, two witnesses told AFP.

One Tamboul resident said chaos had erupted in the central square where "hundreds of people had gathered" for the ceremony as air defenses responded.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the strikes, the first in Al-Jazira state in months, and neither the army nor its RSF foes issued any comment.

Al-Jazira was Sudan's pre-war agricultural heartland, AFP reported.

It had been largely calm since the army recaptured it from the Rapid Support Forces in January in the same counteroffensive that saw it retake Khartoum in March.

According to the United Nations, around a million people have returned to their homes in Al-Jazira since January.

Wednesday's celebration in Tamboul was due to be attended by Abu Aqla Kaykal, the commander of the Sudan Shield Forces, an armed group currently aligned with the regular army which has been accused of atrocities while fighting on both sides of Sudan's devastating war.

His defection back to the army's side late last year helped pave the way for its gains of recent months.

Since it began in April 2023, the war between the regular army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

The army now controls the centre, north and east of Sudan, while the RSF hold nearly all of the west and parts of the south.