The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by the United States, announced on Tuesday 17 October that they had "totally" liberated the city of Raqqa, after more than five months of fighting against Islamic State jihadists. "The battle is over; now only operations to eliminate any sleeper cells and to demine the city will take place," the SDF spokesperson told the AFP news agency.

In five months of fighting in Raqqa, 3,250 people died, more than a third of them civilians

On Saturday, an agreement reached with the last hardline fighters allowed the evacuation of all those who were not "foreign fighters" — that is, jihadists who had come from abroad to support the caliphate in Syria. Western nations had pressed for no safe passage to be granted to those who, once the war was over, might return to their home countries and organise terrorist attacks. Raqqa was in fact the first city to fall into the hands of Isis, in 2014. And it is here that some of the attacks carried out in Europe are said to have been planned, such as those of 13 November 2015 in Paris.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the battle of Raqqa resulted in the deaths of 3,250 people, of whom 1,130 were civilians.