The road to rebuilding Raqqa
The city of Raqqa, newly liberated from the Islamic State by the Kurdish-led and US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces, will now face the challenges of reconstruction and uprooting the jihadi threat once and for all.
With the city of Deir ez-Zor falling into the hands of the Assad regime army and allied forces Nov. 3, the city of Raqqa — newly liberated from the Islamic State (IS) by the Kurdish-led and US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — finds itself at a turning point. Surrounded by regional and local enemies with diverging geopolitical interests, Raqqa’s elites have to carefully navigate ethnic lines while tackling a difficult reconstruction effort and uprooting the jihadi threat once and for all.
With IS nearly eradicated in Syria, Raqqa will be facing an increasingly complex environment emerging in the post-IS phase.
