Some 100,000 Return to Raqqa Devastated by US Coalition's Anti-Daesh Bombings

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Some 100,000 people have come back to live in the Syrian city of Raqqa, Jan Egeland, the adviser on humanitarian issues to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, said Wednesday.

According to Egeland, the United Nations sent an assessment mission to Raqqa which was carried out on April 1 with 25 UN experts.

"They report that perhaps now 100,000 people have come back to live in Raqqa city," Egeland said, calling conditions in Raqqa a "devastation."

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He went on saying that the United Nations does not have any reports on any recent fighting or air raids in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta following years of "besiegement and suffering."

"Hopefully the battle is over now in the heavily-populated area of Eastern Ghouta. After many years of besiegement and suffering, we have no reports of recent fighting, no reports of recent air raids," Egeland told a briefing.

Raqqa was taken over by the terrorist group Daesh* in 2013, which went on to declare it the capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate in 2014.

In late 2016, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with the support of the US-led coalition, started an operation aimed at freeing the city from the militants' grasp. In October 2017, the SDF announced the full liberation of the city, which was later confirmed by the US-led coalition.