Baladi News - Journals
All day, dinghies cross the Euphrates River to shuttle residents into the pulverised cityscape of Syria's Raqa, where bridges, homes, and schools remain gutted by the offensive against the Islamic State group.
Exactly a year has passed since a blistering US-backed assault ousted the jihadists from their one-time Syrian stronghold, but Raqa -- along with the roads and bridges leading to it -- remains in ruins.
To enter the city, 33-year-old Abu Yazan and his family have to pile into a small boat on the southern banks of the Euphrates, which flows along the bottom edges of Raqa.
They load their motorcycle onto the small vessel, which bobs precariously north for a few minutes before dropping off passengers and their vehicles at the city's outskirts.
"It's hard.. the kids are always afraid of the constant possibility of drowning," says bearded Abu Yazan.
"We want the bridge to be repaired because it's safer than water transport."
Rights group Amnesty International estimates around 80 percent of Raqqa was devastated by fighting, including vital infrastructure like schools and hospitals.
The national hospital, the city's largest medical facility, was where IS made its final stand. It still lies ravaged.
Private homes were not spared either: 30,000 houses were fully destroyed and another 25,000 heavily damaged, says Amnesty.
Since IS was ousted, more than 150,000 people have returned to Raqa, according to United Nations estimates last month.
But the city remains haunted by one of IS's most infamous legacies: a sea of mines and unexploded ordnance that still maims and kills residents to this day.
Source: The Mail Online