ISIS abandons its wounded members and accuses Al-Raqqah people of being “hypocrites and being agents of SDF and International Coalition”

23 civilian bodies, mostly from the same family, recovered raising civilian fatalities in Al-Raqqah city to more than 850 since the start of the Grand Battle of Al-Raqqah

Al-Raqqah city has been witnessing deteriorating humanitarian conditions as a result of the significant shortage in food stocks remaining to the thousands of people who are still residing in the ISIS-controlled areas in Al-Raqqah city, which used to be the capital of ISIS and its main stronghold in Syria. Reliable sources informed the SOHR that ISIS has been abandoning its wounded members and civilians without providing them with medical care. It also issued a verbal circular addressing everyone to the effect that “Each shall be responsible for themselves”. Meanwhile, ISIS executes any person who makes contact with any military or political entities outside Al-Raqqah. Their death penalty is carried out inside its controlled-areas in the city.

Now that the SDF backed by the US Special Forces and the International Coalition warplanes started to crack down on ISIS members inside Al-Raqqah city and managed to take control of about 61% of the city area, tensions started to pile up amid increasing resentment among ISIS members remaining inside the city. The SOHR learned that ISIS began to accuse the people of Al-Raqqah of being “hypocrites, infidels and agents to the SDF and the Coalition”. Sources confirmed that ISIS carried out executions of tens of civilians, including men, young men and boys, on charges of “espionage for the US, the International Coalition, and the SDF” since the start of the Grand Battle of Al-Raqqah on the 6th of June 2017.

Amid such deteriorating humanitarian and security conditions inside Al-Raqqah – which left ISIS members demoralized –  fighting continues between the SDF backed by the US Special Forces on one hand and ISIS on the other in areas in Al-Morour neighborhood, in the western part of the city, and in the vicinity of the city center. Clashes are accompanied by shelling by the “Euphrates Wrath” Operation Forces on areas in the city and airstrikes carried out by the International Coalition every now and then on civilians’ areas, causing more casualties. The SOHR documented the death of 23 persons, including 11 children and 3 women, as a result of shelling by the International Coalition warplanes that targeted Al-Raqqah center. Their bodies have been recovered and identified by their relatives and it turned out that most of them belong to the same family.  Thus, the civilian fatalities, documented by the SOHR in Al-Raqqah city and countryside since the 5th of June until the 1st of September 2017, increased to at least 855, including an SOHR activist, 215 children and 135 women. Specifically, 839 civilians, including at least 214 children below the age of 18 and 131 women above the age of 18, were killed in Al-Raqqah city. In addition, 16 civilians, including 3 children and 4 women, were killed in raids on Zour Shamar village and another area at the southern banks of the Euphrates in the eastern countryside of Al-Raqqah. Airstrikes also left hundreds of civilians injured with varied degrees of severity, some of whom had their limbs amputated and some suffered permanent disabilities and others are still in critical conditions, which indicate that the death toll is likely to rise again. Moreover, dozens of houses and public utilities were destroyed as a result of the intensive shelling that targeted the city, its surroundings and outskirts.