Battle of Raqqa (2017)
The battle of Raqqa (2017), also known as the second battle of Raqqa, was the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa campaign (2016–2017) launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State (ISIL) with an aim to seize the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL since 2014. The battle began on 6 June 2017, and was supported by airstrikes and ground troops from the US-led coalition. The operation was named the "Great Battle" by the SDF. It concluded on 17 October 2017, with the SDF fully capturing the city of Raqqa.
| Battle of Raqqa (2017) | |||||||||
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| Part of the American-led intervention in the Syrian civil war, the International military intervention against the Islamic State, the Raqqa campaign (2016–2017), the Rojava–Islamist conflict, and the Syrian civil war | |||||||||
Map of the SDF advances and control situations in Raqqa city, during the battle Syrian Democratic Forces control | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
International Freedom Battalion | Islamic State | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Rojda Felat (SDF general command member and YPJ commander) Clara Raqqa (high-ranking YPJ commander) Adnan Abu Amjad † (Manbij Military Council general commander) Muhammad Mustafa Ali "Abu Adel" (Manbij Military Council and Northern Sun Battalion commander) Dilsuz Hashme (Manbij Military Council senior commander) Ibrahim Semho (Euphrates Liberation Brigade commander) Abu Imad (Elite Forces commander) Ahmad Sultan (Army of Revolutionaries commander-in-chief) Ali Çiçek (Kurdish Front commander) Abu Raad Bakary (Tribal Forces commander) Nubar Ozanyan † (IFB and TKP/ML commander) |
Abu Khattab al-Tunisi † (ISIL high command member and commander of eastern Raqqa) Abu Osama al-Tunisi † (ISIL commander) Abu Ubada al-Shami (Caliphate Cubs commander and chief recruiter) Abu Osama (Commander of ISIL holdouts by Oct. 2017) | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| See anti-ISIL forces order of battle | See ISIL order of battle | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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30,000–40,000 total
| 3,000–5,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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690 killed (per SOHR) 655 killed (per SDF) 1,000 killed (per ISIL) |
1,400 killed (per SOHR) 1,246+ killed 715 captured (per SDF) | ||||||||
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1,540 civilians killed (per SOHR) 1,600 civilians killed by Coalition airstrikes (per Airwars and Amnesty International) 1,854–1,873 civilians killed (per local monitors) Tens of thousands of civilians displaced | |||||||||
The battle ran concurrently with the lifting of the Siege of Deir ez-Zor (2014–2017) as well as the Battle of Mosul (2016–2017), which started seven months earlier, as part of an effort by the CJTF–OIR and its allies to strip ISIL of its regional centers of power and to dismantle it as a state.
Similarly to the other battles fought against ISIL, the battle for Raqqa was marked by grueling urban combat, with fighting both on the surface level, and in tunnels below that ISIL militants moved through. One U.S. commander described it as some of the most intense urban fighting since the Second World War. Out of a pre-war population of 300,000 some 270,000 people were said to have fled Raqqa. Around 80% of the city was destroyed by the battle.