Alwaght- Syria considers the claims of the United States and its so-called alliance about the liberation of Raqqa city from ISIS to be lies.
In a statement on Sunday, Syrian Foreign Ministry said propaganda on alleged liberation of Raqqa aims to divert international public opinion from the crimes committed by this alliance in Raqqa province.
The statement noted that that the US and its illegitimate alliance are misleading the international community about their intentions towards Syria.
The Syrian Foreign ministry noted that more than 90% of Raqqa city has been leveled due to the deliberate and barbaric bombardment of the city and the towns near it by the alliance, which also destroyed all services and infrastructures and forced tens of thousands of locals to leave the city and become refugees.
“The US and its allies are celebrating what they call the liberation of Raqqa over the bodies of their victims, as proven by the suffering of the forcibly-displaced citizens who are living on the roads and in camps due to the practices of the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) which seize humanitarian aid meant to save the lives of Raqqa locals,” the statement added. detainment.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry went on to say that, ISIS wouldn’t have exited Raqqa and went to other areas to fight the Syrian and Iraqi armies there if it hadn’t been in collusion with the US and the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces.
The source affirmed that Syria still considers Raqqa to be an occupied city, and it can only be considered liberated when the Syrian Arab Army enters it.
The source added that the quick calls by the US and the alliance for rebuilding Raqqa is an act of scam and fraud on the public opinion seeking to cover up the destruction they caused in Raqqa.
Raqqa, the Syrian stronghold of the terrorist group ISIS was declared on October 20 “liberated” by both the predominantly-Kurdish SDF and the US. However, before US-backed militias enter into the destroyed city, several hundred ISIS fighters struck a deal with the SDF to take their family members and leave to ISIS-controlled parts of Deir ez-Zor governorate. Some foreign fighters reportedly stayed behind, refusing to surrender.
The Syrian city was taken after months of constant bombardment by coalition airstrikes and artillery shelling. The UN estimates that over 80 percent of the buildings in the city are now uninhabitable while reporters on the ground say literally not one of the houses was left unscathed in the fighting.
Pre-war, the city had some 220,000 residents. The Syrian violence caused mass migration, with tens of thousands arriving in Raqqa throughout the years, but under ISIS rule the city’s reduced to 200,000 by the beginning of the US-backed militias' siege in June.
Four months later, an overwhelming majority of the civilians had fled Raqqa, while some 1,800 to 1,900 were killed in the fighting. Coalition strikes accounted for at least 1,300 of those deaths, according to Airwars group, which records and verifies reports of deaths in Iraq and Syria. If the figure included the deaths since March, when the SDF started preparations for the siege, in would be above 2,000, higher than the estimated coalition kills during the capture of Mosul in Iraq, a city several times higher.
