Attack har inletts mot IS-fästet Raqqa i Syrien

Raqqa (Arabic: الرقة‎‎ ar-Raqqah), also called Rakka, al-Raqqah and ar-Raqqah, is a city in Syria located on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about 160 kilometres (99 miles) east of Aleppo. It is located 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine city and bishopric Callinicum (now both a Latin and a Maronite Catholic titular see) was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate between 796 and 809, under the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. With a population of 220,488 based on the 2004 official census, Raqqa was the sixth largest city in Syria. During the Syrian Civil War, the city was captured in 2013 by the Syrian opposition and then by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIL went on to make the city its capital in Syria in 2014. As a result, the city has been hit by airstrikes from the Syrian government, Russia, the United States and several other countries. Most non-Sunni religious structures in the city have been destroyed by ISIL, most notably the Shi'ite Uwais al-Qarni Mosque.