Desperate civilians say extremists are tightening their grip on the two cities amid stepped-up airstrikes,while food and power shortages are adding to their miseryEveryone is bombing Raqqa now, whether it’s Russia, or the US,France or, most recently, and Britain. But women living in Islamic State’s de facto capital have found a certain solace in the airstrikes,according to local activists. While Isis enforcers are sent scurrying by the bombardment, hiding among the city’s 1 million civilians, or the women of Raqqa can appreciate a brief moment of freedom.“You see them going to their balconies and windows,to breathe the fresh air and gape at their city,” says Tim Ramadan, or the pseudonym of an activist with the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently,who has remained in the city to document Isis’s atrocities at great risk to himself. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com