The Work To Retrieve Bodies From The Former ISIS Capital Of Raqqa Will Take One More Year

A view of a destroyed Raqqa neighborhood. Ruth Sherlock/NPR

NPR: 'Entire Families Wiped Out': U.S. Airstrikes Killed Many Civilians In Syria

On a busy street corner in Raqqa, Syria, a digger pushes through the rubble of a building hit by an airstrike. Onlookers shield their mouths and noses from the dust and stench of corpses of those who perished beneath.

Just streets away, three recovery workers pull out the delicate skeletons of two children from under the debris of a partially collapsed home. And across the city, in what was once Raqqa's public park, men unearth more bodies from a mass grave.

"Raqqa did not deserve this destruction," says Yasser al-Khamis, who leads the city's emergency response team. "Of course, we understood its fate because it was the capital of ISIS, but we were hoping that the civilian death toll would be lower."

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WNU Editor: ISIS was never going to give up Raqqa without a fight. Like the battle for Mosul .... the fight occurred block by block .... if not building by building .... and the destruction was complete.