US Coalition Says Less Than 15 Percent of Raqqa Residents Returned Since Fighting Ended

Since the end of fighting in Raqqa, Syria in mid-October, less than 15 percent of displaced civilians have returned to the city.Speaking at a briefing at the US State Department in Washington, Brett McGurk, US envoy to the US-led coalition against Islamic State, said 254,000 civilians were displaced by fighting between the coalition and Islamic State forces in Raqqa since the offensive began on June 6.Some 34,000 have returned, he said, or less than 15 percent. In October, the UNHCR put the number of people displaced from Raqqa since April at 270,000.Raqqa is currently under the control of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish militias.Some residents, like those of Raqqa’s outer neighborhood of Al-Meshlab have returned, but some have accused SDF forces of opening fire on them when they tried to come back in late October.McGurk said civilian returns to the city were slowed by the large number of mines Islamic State forces planted in buildings and cars throughout the city. Mines have killed multiple civilians killed since their return to Raqqa, local news outlets reported.Additionally, McGurk described the center of the city as “fairly well destroyed,” as can be see in footage of the streets and iconic sites of Raqqa.At least 400 SDF troops were killed in the fighting with Islamic State forces and another 700 wounded, McGurk said. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis remain in crowded, under-equipped camps in northern Syria after being displaced from fighting in Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. Credit: Twitter/US State Department via Storyful