U.S.-allied fighters in Syria have begun the arduous work of documenting the devastation in Raqqa, the former Islamic State “capital” that the jihadist group has left in near-total destruction.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of mostly Kurdish anti-ISIS fighters, announced the liberation of Raqqa last week following their capture of the city’s hospital, which the Islamic State had turned into a command center. The SDF has barred most civilians from entering the city due to the extreme deterioration of its infrastructure and the pervasive presence of landmines, booby traps, and explosives littered throughout the city.

The United States officially declared Raqqa liberated from the Islamic State later in the week, with President Donald Trump declaring on Saturday a “critical breakthrough in our worldwide campaign to defeat ISIS and its wicked ideology”:

.@POTUS announces defeat of #ISIS in #Raqqah. We stand prepared to assist w/ urgent humanitarian needs, security & restoring infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/NZR4tL6JSq — Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox) October 21, 2017

Shortly before the Trump announcement, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a statement declaring “the beginning of a new phase in the Syrian conflict,” one focused on reconstruction rather than battle.

U.S. coalition against ISIS chief envoy Brett McGurk has publicly estimated that jihadists left 150 bombs surrounding Raqqa’s water treatment plant alone, suggesting a much larger number of hidden explosives placed throughout the city. SDF spokesman Talal Sillo told reporters last week that the group would not allow most civilians to return to their daily lives until bomb clearing operations were complete.

The SDF did, however, allow a small number of civilians to enter the city for a small celebratory ceremony on Friday in Raqqa’s stadium, the location of the last bit of fighting before the SDF announced the liberation of the city. Those civilians expressed shock and dismay to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), with some stating they may not return even when the city is rebuilt.

“This was once the most beautiful city, my God,” one woman gasped.

“I wasn’t expecting the destruction to be this bad. It’s unreal—there are no buildings left, no infrastructure, no signs of life whatsoever,” attorney Fadila Hamad al-Khalil said.

The AFP notes that, while some of the buildings still have semi-visible signs for businesses, “most of Raqqa has been left in unrecognizable ruin.”

The Islamic State captured Raqqa in 2014, when it still operated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda. Shortly after their establishment in the city, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced that the group had founded an Islamic State with its capital in Raqqa, and that he was the caliph of this new empire. Estimates regarding the scope of ISIS influence find that Baghdadi played “caliph” over land the size of the nation of Jordan and controlled $80 million in revenue in 2015.

American officials and fighters on the ground warn that the Islamic State still controls some pockets of resistance in Syria and Iraq, and maintain influence in nations like Libya and Afghanistan.

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