BEIRUT — The U.S.-led coalition said Friday that the capture of the Islamic State’s onetime Syria capital of Raqqa marked a turning point in the fight against the extremist group, effectively declaring an end to the military operation there.
A U.S.-backed force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, has been clearing the final pockets of the resistance in the city since declaring victory over the Islamic State on Tuesday.
“Daesh’s loss of Mosul and now Raqqah are turning points for the terrorist organization whose leaders grow ever more distant from a dwindling number of terrorist adherents,” said the coalition in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
Three years after seizing a swathe of land the size of Belgium across Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State no longer holds any major cities and is clinging to only one sizable stretch of territory spanning the border between the two countries.
The group had used its self-declared caliphate to raise revenue through taxes, extortion and the sale of oil. Analysts said the group would now shift back to its guerrilla roots, seeking to capitalize on unresolved social divisions across Syria and Iraq, a strategy that allowed it to win a degree of popular support in the first place.
The battle for Raqqa began in June, with the SDF advancing on foot as U.S.-led coalition airstrikes pummeled Islamic State positions from above.
Much of the city now lies in ruins. According to monitoring groups, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in the fight.
The coalition used its victory statement to push back at criticisms that the civilian cost had been too high and that the ground operation was led by a mainly Kurdish force that did not represent the demographics of the city it came to liberate.
“They fought tenaciously and with courage against an unprincipled enemy, taking great care to move the population trapped by Daesh away from the battle area and minimize civilian casualties,” said Brig. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the coalition’s director of operations.
He described the SDF as an “ethnically diverse force” led by “local elements”.
Although the SDF features a substantial number of Arab fighters, its operational structure is dominated by Kurdish militias linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization in neighboring Turkey.
The fighting force celebrated victory Thursday with a news conference in a central square once used by the Islamic State to showcase beheadings. Behind the gathered fighters was a banner of Abdullah Ocalan, a divisive Kurdish nationalist leader who has been jailed as a terrorist in Turkey.
At a second news conference Friday, the SDF said that it was handing control of Raqqa to a civilian administration that has been waiting in the wings.
“Our victory is one against terrorism, and the liberation of Raqqa marks the latest chapter in the fight against terrorists in Syria,” said Talal Sillo, a spokesman and senior SDF commander.
“We call upon all countries and peace-loving forces and all humanitarian organizations to participate in rebuilding the city and villages around it and help in removing the scars of war that were inflicted by the Islamic State,” he said.