As the Syrian Kurdish forces make gains in the ISIS capital of Raqqa, it’s allowed for a new exodus of civilians out of formerly ISIS-held parts of the city. They’rereporting on the disastrous toll US airstrikes have taken on the civilian population.
These survivors, many of them suffering from burns and injuries from narrowly escaping strikes, talk of their homes being leveled, losing family members, having entire apartment buildings brought down and desperately trying to rescue people trapped below.
The US has been carrying out massive numbers of airstrikes against the city, centering on residential areas still held by ISIS. The US has long been rejecting the reports of large civilian death tolls out of Raqqa.
In reality, however, the US strategy in Raqqa is much the same as it was in Mosul, bombing anything that moves. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in much the same happening to the civilians within, living under siege
And while survivors from the recently captured parts of the city tell their horror stories, the same horror is being visited upon civilians in the rest of the city. Though US officials are hopeful of taking the city in a matter of days, the civilian population is suffering calamitous consequences.
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