Alwaght- Rejecting the US claims about Raqqa, the Syrian foreign ministry recently sent a letter to the UN calling for the latter to address the case of destruction of the historical city and killing of thousands of Syrian civilians by the US-led coalition and its militant allies in 2017 operation.
On April 18, the Syrian foreign ministry sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council regarding the war crimes committed by the US-led Western coalition in Raqqa in northern Syria. Damascus has several times referred the case of the US crimes in Raqqa to the UN.
The Syrian government triggers Raqqa crimes case as in late March Damascus, in reaction to Washington's intention to maintain the areas occupied by its forces and its militant allies— who include separatists and Turkish-backed terrorists— had said that it would "file a suit against the US and its mercenaries for crimes."
In 2016 and 2020, the Syrian government complained to the UN for the American illegal operations and setting fire to thousands of acres of farms in the country. At the time, the Syrian UN envoy Bashar Jaafari told the UN that the occupying American and Turkish forces intentionally torched crops in Island region in northern Syria to cause food shortage. The complaints have so far gone nowhere because of strong sway of the US and other Western actors over international organizations.
Various aspects of destruction of Raqqa historical city
Syria's new complaint to the UN emphasizes that the US-led Western coalition destroyed the city of Raqqa and killed thousands of innocent people, but the crime has not been addressed by the international community.
From the Damascus government's point of view, the extent of damage to government and private infrastructure and facilities, and the number of casualties in Raqqa, Ain al-Arab, and Al-Baghuz indicate that the US and its allies committed war crimes against humanity. In order to prove this, it is enough to consider the scale of devastation of infrastructure and various in Raqqa as one of the most strategic provinces of Syria.
Basically, the devastation in Raqqa can be assessed along with the large level of damage inflicted on different parts of the country. According to the World Bank in 2017, about 7 percent of Syrian homes were destroyed and about 20 percent were severely damaged. Between 400,000 and 470,000 deaths have been reported, and more than half of Syria's population was forced to flee their country since 2011.
Meanwhile, all the evidence indicates that Raqqa is one of the Syrian provinces that was directly affected by the war. Raqqa city is of great historical and civilizational importance, something led to its selection as the capital of self-proclaimed caliphate of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In fact, for ISIS it was a promised land. Historically, the city was the seat of the Abbasid rule, and among other Islamic sites the historical monuments of this city were of great importance. However, during the attacks staged by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-majority militant group, on the city in 2017, with the air support of the Western forces, all the infrastructure and historical sites of the city were demolished.
Although in October 2017 the SDF took the city from ISIS with the support of the Americans, the liberation came at the expense of destroying all civil, historical, and cultural infrastructure.
Displacement of 700,000 of the city's population was another effect of the blind bombardment campaign by the Western coalition. Generally, Raqqa was given the largest scale of bombardment among other Syrian provinces during over a decade of war. Additionally, over 90 percent of its economic, health, and educational infrastructure were fully ruined.
War end provides chance to more precisely watch the US Raqqa performance
In the statement issued by the Syrian foreign ministry, it is claimed that the actions of the international coalition were the most heinous crimes not known to the world community.
"But it is time to clarify this human, legal, and political issue," said the statement. In one paragraph of the statement, the issue of time is explicitly mentioned, so the analysis of the time in referring this issue to the UN is of particular importance.
The fact is that with Syria making its way to destabilization, the central government would have a bigger opportunity to more precisely shed light on the devastation of war and the required construction work. Meanwhile, Raqqa, as the capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate of ISIS, which went under the control of US-affiliated Kurdish militias after obliteration of ISIS, is one of the most ruined cities in Syria, for the most part because of constant and blind US bombing of the historical city.
Despite many pieces of evidence bearing witness to the US-headed coalition's crimes against humanity in Raqqa and other parts like Al-Baghuz, Washington is yet to respond to the Syrian government, the global public opinion, or international organizations. Once stability is fully restored in Syria, the international community needs to bring justice to the US criminal actions in Syria in general and Raqqa in particular.
