U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters walk along the western frontline of Raqqa, Syria. July 19, 2017. The 2017 Battle of Raqqa was the final phase of the Raqqa campaign to oust the Islamic State from their de facto capital, a major blow to the governance, infrastructure, and authority of the terrorist organization. When the four month battle was over, nearly eighty percent of Raqqa was in ruins. The United Nations described it as ‘uninhabitable’. Human rights groups have argued that extensive use of airstrikes and high-range artillery prioritized SDF lives over those of civilians. The number of civilians killed during the fighting remains unknown.
The damaged cityscape of the western edge of Raqqa during the second month of the battle.
Members of the U.S. backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces react to the sound of an Islamic State drone flying above their location on the western side of Raqqa. July 22, 2017. The Islamic State repurposed drones into armed ordnance to defend its territory as well as for reconnaissance. The drones would be equipped with a ‘bomblet’, a homemade grenade, which would be released at random or by the operator. Effectively, very dangerous, rebel forces would try to shoot them down before they approached their positions.
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces push into Islamic State-help Raqqa on July 23, 2017. There’s no cellphone or wifi coverage in Raqqa. Rebel groups speak to one another through battery operated two-way radios.
Syrian Democratic Forces wait in an unfinished apartment building along the edge of Raqqa until night fall to start their next offensive to push forward the western frontline.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) move between floors inside an unfinished apartment building along the frontline of Raqqa.
Syrian Democratic Forces wait until night fall to start their next offensive inside a temporary positions along the frontline of Raqqa.
At a trauma-stabilization point, a makeshift medical unit in an abandoned store front on the eastern edge of Raqqa, a Syrian Democratic Forces fighter closes the eyes of the dead civilian the unit attempted to save after he was injured fleeing flighting in central Raqqa.
The remains of a family apartment building in central Raqqa, Syria.
SDF formed, US-funded and trained Raqqa Internal Security Forces at a graduation ceremony near Ain Issa, Syria. The force, which is made up of mostly local Arab men and women, was created to takeover security responsibilities from the Kurdish-majority SDF and help restore stability after Raqqa in fully liberated from the Islamic State. New recruits go through ten days of training in order to get a weapon and a uniform.
Members of the SDF punch a hole in the wall of the building they are occupying.
Doctors treat a wounded SDF fighter at a trauma-stabilization point, the only frontline medical unit based in an abandoned store front on the eastern edge of Raqqa.
Fighters in the Syriac Military Council, an Assyrian/Syriac military organization that is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, run across a sniper alley in western Raqqa.
The Syriac Military Council was established in 2013 during the Syrian Civil War to uphold the national rights of and to protect Assyrian/Aramean people in Syria.
Two young boys walk through the damaged palm-trees in a park in al-Fardous neighborhood, Raqqa. Years after the fighting in Raqqa has ended, the city remains in ruins. US-led coalition forces responsible for the majority of the damage to Raqqa have washed their hands of the responsibility of rebuilding the city. The Trump Administration in particular has emphasized the need for other Middle Eastern and Muslim countries to come to the city’s aid. January 24, 2019.
Khadijah Omry poses for a portrait. July 20, 2017. “Coming here was the biggest mistake of my life,” said Omry, a 29-year-old Tunisian who came to Syria in May 2013 with her Tunisian husband and two-year-old son.
After her husband was killed in 2014, she said she was placed in a dormitory for ISIS widows and their children. According to Omry, conditions in the dormitory were deliberately difficult, a tactic to pressure the women to remarry other ISIS fighters. Omry eventually did. She and her husband surrendered to US-led SDF fighters after they entered her neighborhood in Raqqa. Omry hopes this is the end of her nightmare. She is one of the few women in the section for ISIS-affiliated families that asked to have her portrait taken without niqab.
A group of about three hundred civilians wait for SDF fighters to return their identify cards and trucks to arrive to transport them to camps after fleeing Raqqa earlier in the day.
Ain al-Issa camp, 40 kilometers north of Raqqa continues to swell with new arrivals from ongoing fighting between ISIS and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Here, new arrivals wait in a processing tent (sometimes for days) until they get assigned a family tent at the camp or moved to another location with more space.
More than 250,000 people displaced from ongoing fighting against the Islamic State have passed through Ain al-Issa camp, 40 miles north of Raqqa.
A young girl lies in a processing tent in Ani al-Issa IDP camp after fleeing Raqqa earlier. According to the child’s mother, she has a bloody nose due to the heat. A a cold washcloth has been put over her forehead to try to cool her down after the arduous journey to the camp, 40 kilometers north of Raqqa.
A US military vehicle passes Ain al-Issa IDP camp in the distance, 40 miles north of Raqqa.
Two women in the Syriac Military Council - an Assyrian Christian militia aligned with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - ride in the back of a pick up truck from western Raqqa to their base outside the city. Women play an integral front line role in military operations in northern Syria against the Islamic State, pitting the region's most unprecedented feminist endeavor against the region's most spectacularly misogynistic one.
Syrians displaced from the fight against the Islamic State in Ain Issa camp, 40 kilometers north of Raqqa. August, 27, 2017.
A tarp is sprung up to prevent ISIS snipers from seeing SDF fighters moving from one side of the street to the other.
SDF fighters in a temporary position along the frontline of western Raqqa. The frontline consists of individual units occupying different buildings, many large apartment buildings, along the edge of the city. The forces cut their own passageways through rooms and buildings in order to move around undetected by the Islamic State. The Islamic State uses the same tactic making the guerrilla urban fighting particularly difficult along a porous and highly dynamic frontline.
The cross of a Syriac fighter swings back and forth as the pickup truck moves out of the way of a SDF Humvee along the western frontline of Raqqa.
The Syriac Military Council, an Assyrian/Syriac military organization that is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, was established in 2013 during the Syrian Civil War to uphold the national rights of and to protect Assyrian/Aramean people in Syria.
SDF fighters inside one of the few Humvees the group has access to driving along the western front. July 2017.
Ali Shir, a 32-year-old Kurdish field commander from Kobane, takes aim at an ISIS sniper's position that has been shooting at his unit during the afternoon.
Destruction along a city street in Raqqa on January 21, 2019. The US-led Coalition’s campaign to oust the Islamic State armed group from Raqqa was among the most destructive in modern warfare. The offensive - which fired the estimated 20,000 munitions into the city - killed and injured thousands of residents, and reduced homes, businesses and infrastructure to rubble.