60 days have been already spent in the emplacements at the front lines since the start of the Operation to Liberate Raqqa. The fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under the lead of the People's Defense Units (YPG) and the Women's Defense Units (YPJ) are inflicting heavy blows to the ISIS gangs.

The ear-splitting sounds of missiles, explosions of bomb laden vehicles and shots of bullets are reverberating in the shaking avenues and streets of Raqqa, that are clouded in a mist of sand and the dust of explosives.

On a ground, that is still in the grip of an extremely fierce battle, the fighters of the SDF are moving heaven and earth to save the lives of the trapped civilians and get them out of harms way. Suchlike operations are meticulously planned and every step is calculated in the minutest detail.

The fighters of the SDF have successfully hedged in the ISIS gangs in the Raqqa city from all four sides and are advancing steadily to the city centre. The ISIS thugs are trying desperately to hamper the progress of the SDF by resorting to bomb laden trucks and using civilians as human shields. In those neighbourhoods that have been liberated safeguarding the lives of the civilians is the fighters’ first and foremost priority. Next the areas get cleared of mines. At those areas where land mines planted by ISIS get cleared, emplacements are getting secured and possible attacks get frustrated.

Under the lead of the YPG and YPJ a scrupulously precise strategic battle is fought in Raqqa, that has earned its place in the pages of history. In this battle that has entered its third month, the connections of the ISIS gangs with surrounding cities have been cut off and the resistance they put up has been smashed relentlessly.

PRIMARY GOAL IS TO RESCUE CIVILIANS

As they were beleaguering the ISIS gangs in Raqqa in these last three weeks, the fighters of the SDF have also rescued thousands of civilians entrapped in the shelters in the centre of the city and from those neighbourhoods which the fighters took under control, via those corridors they opened. The civilians are then taken immediately to safe areas, sometimes in big groups and sometimes in small three to five person groups only.

The majority of those waiting to be rescued in Raqqa are women and children and the elderly. The fighters of the SDF have carried out until now countless successful operations to get the civilian population out of there safely and in fact during those operations no civilians suffered serious injuries at all. The ISIS gangs are deliberately launching missile attacks and fire bombs over the heads of those civilians trapped in the shelters, causing the civilians to suffer heavily and to stir up chaos in Raqqa.

The ISIS gangs are using civilians as human shields each time the fighters of the SDF launch offensive actions and during the fights that take place every night. For this reason the battles fought at nightfall appear heavy-footed.

Every attempt of the civilians to flee the city is being answered by the ISIS thugs with armed assaults. It is unknown how many civilians have been killed by those ISIS attacks, mines and bombings so far. Those civilians who were rescued by the fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, are taken in the first instance to the emergency station at the front and are guided later to hospitals and refugee camps.

"THIS IS NOT WHAT BEING MUSLIM MEANS"

Two elderly men with the names Mihemed Hemdanî Hemdan and Ibrahîm Hesen Mustafa who have been rescued from ISIS gangs, were falling round the neck of the SDF fighters tearfully and crying: "Those monsters are no Muslims. Do not believe them. This is not what Islam teaches, they are barbarians."

Hemdanî Hemdan was saying: "They used us as human shields and pushed the civilians ahead of themselves and are fighting cowardly in that manner. We went out just wanting to reach you. An ISIS member pointed his weapon on us. We continued walking. We thought we would either die or escape. And then we heard the voices of the SDF fighters, they put everything they had into our rescue. At the end the fighters of the SDF defeated those gangs and came to our rescue, and we were free at last and happy beyond words."

Ibrahîm Hesen Mustafa said: "Thank God, we have finally reached you. They terrorized us horribly. They starved us, tortured us, left us thirsty and piled up the corpses of our family in front of our eyes. The SDF has come and taken us into their embracement, filled with new spirit. We are immensely relieved to be here with the SDF now. The ISIS gangs tortured us and we were awaiting your arrival longingly to be rescued at last. ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. This is not what it means to be a Muslim, do not believe them, they are monsters."