During the campaign launched within the second stage of the third phase in the Operation Wrath of Euphrates to encircle Raqqa, the operations to clear villages continue after the Bîr Heba and Mekmen branches joined.

The fighters are working very carefully in the villages planted with mines by ISIS. They are met with great interest from the residents in every village they enter. In the search efforts, the villagers help the fighters most of the time in finding the hiding places of ISIS members and the location of the mines they have planted.

After each cleared village, residents greet the fighters with great enthusiasm and offer them tea and water.

The villagers express their joy by saying, “You saved us from this bane, now it’s over and ISIS will never return.”

Most of the villagers have family members in Raqqa or Deir ez-Zor.