The hell that is Raqqa

Two years ago Islamic State extremists declared the northern Syrian city of Raqqa as the capital of their self-declared Caliphate. It’s a city on the banks of the Euphrates River, around 160 kilometres east of Aleppo, and it has become one of the most brutal places on earth with reports of rapes, beatings and beheadings.

At great personal risk a small number of people inside Raqqa are providing first hand accounts of Islamic State brutality. The media activists have formed the group ‘Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently’.

Abu-Ibrahim co-founded Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, which has become one of the few reliable sources of information about atrocities committed in the ISIS stronghold, from execution to beheaded, to killing to arresting people, torturing people.

The group’s dangerous work has won it international acclaim. Its members face serious consequences if they are caught by ISIS.

A coalition of western and Arab nations including the United States, France and Russia are carrying out almost daily bombing raids on Raqqa.

Despite these dangers, the activist group shows no sign of stopping its work.