VICE NEWS interview: How are you protecting your family, are you trying to get them out? It's a very bad situation for us, we cannot take them out of the city. Do your families support your decision to do this? Not just our families, the whole city of Raqqa, because people are just tired of ISIS. How long do you think this is going to last, or when do you think you'll be able to go back to Raqqa? I don't know, but when ISIS get out of the city I will immediately go back. How do people in Raqqa feel about the US air strikes? I would say the people of Raqqa just split into two parts. The first part say, "I will deal with the devil just to take ISIS out of the city, because we are tired of ISIS. Enough of this, we want you to take them out of the city, we want our freedom, we want our lives back, and our sons back from prison, because there are more than 1,200 people from Raqqa in ISIS prisons." They just want these air strikes to kick ISIS out of the city but they fear these air strikes, because they don't want any of the civilians or the innocent prisoners, and innocent families to die. The second part, including me, are against these strikes, because if the West wanted our freedom, why didn't they bomb the Assad regime after he used chemical weapons, and why didn't they bomb the Assad regime when we have been begging for their help for four years now, and they didn't do anything? They are just now doing this because of ISIS, not for us. So they are against these airstrikes. People just split into two parts, but both parts are fearing that air strikes will kill innocent people. Are ISIS fighters using Raqqa's civilians as human shields? Yes. After Obama's speech, when he said he wants to bomb ISIS in Syria, they moved all their families to the suburbs of the city. All their buildings are now empty, and just have two or three guards to secure the buildings, and all the ISIS members are heading to flats they are taking from the people of Raqqa — the civilians, the Christians, those who are escaping from the war. Or if you for instance have three houses, they'll come to you and say, "you don't need three houses, we'll take two and you keep one, to put foreign fighters in it." And you know, people are just scared of them, they cannot say no. They know if they say no it will be a big problem and they may be put in prison because they'll say "you're against the Islamic State." So if for example there's a building with 10 flats, six flats will be for ISIS and four for the people of Raqqa. Each flat between 10 to 15 members. So they are making people into human shields, to hide between them. It's a big problem for the people, they are scared of this. Is anyone in Raqqa still trying to resist ISIS? Are some people starting to buying into their claims or do they just do it to survive? Most of the people of Raqqa are against ISIS, maybe 90 percent. The other 10, ISIS gives them money, power, and because of that they want it in the city. After the airstrikes, a few more people said, "I will be with ISIS against these strikes." But most in the city just want them out. They are just tired.
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