The fall of Raqqa

Abdelaziz Alhamza is a very courageous co-founder of the organization “Raqqah is being slaughtered silently”, which is acting in a city in the heart of the Islamic State, in a city that the self-appointed Caliphate of the Islamic State elected as its Capital: Raqqah.

The group “Raqqa is being slaughtered silently” was awarded the International Press Freedom Award in 2015 from the the Committee to Protect Journalists. The group has published videos and photos of the crimes committed in Raqqa, like public crucifixions, or executions. Taking huge risks, the group “Raqqa is being slaughtered silently” also prints a resistance magazine and addresses opposition messages to the population

To this day, many members of this group have been executed by the Islamic State. But still, the group carries its activities. Putting their lives at stake, with an extraordinary bravery, those Syrians keep on resisting to an Islamic State which is, finally, on several military fronts, experiencing a series of setbacks.

Because these last months have seen the start of the fall of the Islamic State in Syria.

Before watching precisely, in a third part, which difficulties and defeats is now facing the Islamic State, there is one thing that we have to understand in a first part, and it is the terrible, terrible mistakes which spawned such an appalling monster. In a second part, we are going to see what, in fact, this IS is.

In the 4 last episodes we had a look on town situated in the Syrian, Iraqi, and Turkish Kurdistan. Today we are back in Syria, but with Raqqa, a town in the heart of the Islamic States. Welcome on Politis.