Shafaq News – Raqqa

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday described the battle of liberation the Raqqa from ISIS as a lasting covenant between its fighters and the people of the city.

Raqqa, seized by ISIS in 2014, was fully recaptured on October 20, 2017, after more than four months of fighting. Since then, the SDF has maintained control of the city in coordination with the Raqqa Civil Council.

In a statement marking the eighth year of liberation, the SDF General Command said its men and women fighters, with the backing of Raqqa’s residents and tribes, “wrote an immortal epic” when they freed the city. “Raqqa, once the capital of ISIS’s so-called caliphate, returned to its people—free, dignified, and alive with hope,” the statement read.

The statement called the victory “a global triumph over one of the most extreme forms of terrorism,” arguing it restored hope to communities worldwide and demonstrated that “the SDF was the force that answered its people’s call and defeated ISIS on the ground when others failed.”