Second Battle of Raqqa

Date: June 6, 2017 • Location: Ar Raqqah, Syrian Arab Republic

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 2017.

Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces opened the Second Battle of Raqqa, the final phase of the Raqqa campaign, capturing the de facto capital of the Islamic State four months later.

The Syrian civil war was an armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, which led to a series of defections, the emergence of armed opposition groups, and the civilian uprising descending into a civil war. The war lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Many sources regard this as the end of the civil war even though clashes have continued into 2026.