[18] Because of this view, President Bashar al-Assad visited the city to pray in one of its mosques for Eid al-Adha in June 2012.

[7] They engaged forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in heavy fighting around key state buildings, eventually driving out the army.

[16] Although, according to al-Akhbar, the city (which had been surrounded on four sides by checkpoints) did not fall militarily, pointing out that, despite not having a formidable Syrian Army deployment, it was not normal that Raqqa fell in hours.

[22] On 5 March, footage emerged of both Hasan Jalali and Suleiman al-Suleiman surrounded by jubilant rebel fighters.

[25][26] Some of the captured government troops were publicly executed by the Islamic factions after the takeover, with their bodies put on display or dragged through the city streets.

[29] On 19 May, Syria's Raqqa opposition chief, Abdallah al-Khalil, was kidnapped, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Khalil was reportedly stopped by five armed gunmen in a black Kia Rio while in his car in eastern Raqqa.

Khalil's kidnapping was considered a crucial event for Raqqa's fate, as he was seen as the only respected intermediary by all Syrian opposition parties in the city at the time.

[32] In mid-August, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) announced that they would stop participating in the siege of the 17th Division, one of the two last remaining loyalist bases in Raqqa.

They wanted to focus on civil administration instead, in building an Islamic state, and so they would withdraw fighters from the most urgent battlefields.

[34][35] By January 6, 2014, rebels had ousted ISIL from the city as part of the Syrian opposition–Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant conflict.