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How ISIS lost control of its last major stronghold in the Middle East

Western-backed forces have finally conquered Raqqa, the capital of ISIS's so-called caliphate in Syria, but the war for control of the region is far from over.

After months of fighting, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have conquered Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State's so-called caliphate and its last major stronghold in the Middle East.

But the victory by no means indicates that ISIS is defeated, and enormous ethnic challenges still lie ahead for the embattled country.

Here's how the Raqqa campaign was won, and what lies on the horizon for Syria:

The campaign to retake Raqqa from ISIS (which seized the ancient Syrian city in early 2014) officially began in November 2016, several weeks after the campaign to retake Mosul, the group's stronghold in Iraq, was announced.

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SDF spokesman Talal Sello said the campaign would consist of

The Syrian Democratic Forces that led the Raqqa campaign is a coalition of various militias, however it has always been led by the Kurds.

The SDF was created in order to bring non-Kurdish groups that live in northern Syria, including Assyrian Christians and especially Sunni Arabs, into cooperation with the Kurds to create a single, moderate coalition to defeat ISIS. Yet inter-ethnic problems remain.

Source: , and

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In July, the SDF began the most arduous part of the Raqqa campaign — conquering the city itself. A combined ground and air assault began on Raqqa, and with it came vicious urban warfare and hundreds of civilian casualties.

Because Raqqa is an ancient city, fighting ISIS amidst its small, winding streets proved difficult for both the SDF and their American air support. ISIS used urban guerilla tactics as it had in other places like Mosul, Iraq, making the SDF's campaign to clear the city from fighters a long, frustrating task.

The presence of civilians made airstrikes and troop movements even more difficult — despite precautions, Amnesty International has reported that "hundreds" of civilians had been killed by US airstrikes in Raqqa, which had begun before SDF ground troops were able to move in. The

Worst of all, however, not only was ISIS using civilians as human shields and moving through underground tunnels, but they also murdered anyone in the city trying to escape through sniper fire and mortar bombardments.

After months of brutal urban warfare and heavy resistance from ISIS fighters, the SDF declared victory in Raqqa on October 17 after seizing the national hospital and the city stadium, where the last ISIS fighters were stationed.

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Amid the celebrations, though, the SDF is still in the process of clearing landmines and other explosives from the area, and although it warns that there may still be 100 ISIS militants hiding amid the city's rubble, nearly 6,000 fighters surrendered as the group's resistance was in its final hours.

Nevertheless, Arabs in Raqqa were the main celebrants after ISIS's defeat.

The SDF's victory in Raqqa diminishes ISIS's presence in Iraq and Syria to only a few border territories in the desert. The Islamist group no longer has access to the large cities they conquered when they rose to international prominence in 2014.

However, there remains much work to be done in Raqqa. With a large displaced population and reconstruction costs mounting, the SDF is now faced with the task of dealing with the Raqqa campaign's fallout.

From the prelude to the battle of Raqqa in June to its conclusion this week, a group of Syrian activist journalists known as Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently has documented more than 3,829 airstrikes, 1,873 civilian deaths, and 450,000 displaced people in the city.

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In addition, RBSS estimates that 90% of the city has been destroyed by the months of fighting.

Reuters reports that the SDF has set up the Raqqa Civil Council in order to oversee security and reconstruction efforts in the city, however funding from the US and other sources has so far been insufficient.

Sources:

"We gave our city as a sacrifice for the sake of defeating terrorism," Ibrahim Hassan, who heads reconstruction for the RCC, told Reuters. "It's the world's duty to help us."

In addition to logistical concerns about the future of Raqqa, socio-political ones remain as well.

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It is unclear how the Syrian government, which is also conducting campaigns against ISIS in northeastern Syria, will react to the SDF's vast zone of control. The group, along with the Kurdish-dominated Federation of Northern Syria, hopes to establish its own country in the area, a move that would surely be met with hostility from Damascus.

Kurdish moves toward independence in neighboring Iraq after the fall of ISIS there were met with exactly this kind of aggressive resistance from the government in Baghdad.

Now that ISIS's territorial control has been shattered, Syrians in Raqqa say it is critical that the resumption of basic services, reconstruction, and social integration are pursued quickly so as to prevent a local insurgency from taking shape as it did in Iraq following the 2003 US invasion.

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