Raqqa 20180505 Two members of the first responders team in Raqqa are searching for bodies and human remains in the rubble in Hay al-Beddo, “the beduin quarter” in Raqqa. They have found around 30-40 bodies in this spot. Digging with tractors and heavy machinery and then manually going through the gravel and debris. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent
By Vilhelm Stokstad – Death is everywhere in Raqqa. Sometimes it lurks beneath the mountains of bomb-blasted rubble and pancaked buildings. Other times it peeks out from beneath the earth in the form of bones, hair and decomposing flesh the colour and texture of ancient dried parchment. Often it moves around the city, its stench drifting on the humid breeze, creeping into the nostrils and psyche when you least expect it. More than anyone else here, the men of Raqqa’s Civil Defence Unit know where death can be found. For going on six long months now they have sought out its many locations and collected its gruesome detritus along the way.
Raqqa 20180505
Two members of the first responders team in Raqqa are searching for bodies and human remains in the rubble in Hay al-Beddo, "the beduin quarter" in Raqqa. They have found around 30-40 bodies in this spot. Digging with tractors and heavy machinery and then manually going through the gravel and debris.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team in Raqqa are searching for bodies and human remains in Hay al-Beddo, "the beduin quarter" in Raqqa. They have found around 30-40 bodies in this spot. Digging with tractors and heavy machinery and then manually going through the gravel and debris.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
A member of the the first responders team in Raqqa shows a piece of a bone to his supervisor. They are searching for bodies and human remains in Hay al-Beddo, "the beduin quarter" in Raqqa. They have found around 30-40 bodies in this spot. Digging with tractors and heavy machinery and then manually going through the gravel and debris.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180504
The view from one of the still standing buildings in Raqqa. About 80% of the city is estimated to have been destroyed due to the heavy fighting against Daesh.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team in Raqqa are searching for bodies and human remains in Hediqat Al-beida, "the white park" in Raqqa. They say that this particular spot seems to be a mass grave and that they expect to find at least a hundred boides buried here.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team in Raqqa covering up the remains of a woman in a body bag after searching for bodies and human remains in Hediqat Al-beida, "the white park", in Raqqa. They say that this particular spot seems to be a mass grave and that they expect to find at least a hundred boides buried here.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team in Raqqa are getting ready in an ambulance. Someone has called and complained about the smell in a resident building.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team have found two bodies on the second floor of a residential building. They are trying to check for improvised explosive devices and state that the bodies have remains of suicide vests on them.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team have found two bodies on the second floor of a residential building. They are trying to check for improvised explosive devices and state that the bodies have remains of suicide vests on them. After seeing that nothing exploded they start scraping up the human remains and put them in a body bag.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team are disinfecting and washing as curios bystanders are watching from across the street. They just cleared two bodies on the second floor of a residential building.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The first responders team in Raqqa are collecting and counting the twelve bodies they have found this day. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
Since October they have been digging out between 10 and 25 bodies every day. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
At the end of the day the team brings all the body bags to a graveyard outside of the city. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
The supervisor opens up one of the body bags and shows the remains of a small child inside. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
They say a short prayer before putting the bodies into another mass grave.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentRaqqa 20180505
All bodies are put in the same grave, Daesh fighters next to their victims. There is simply not enough resources to try to identify the remains they find. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / Kontinent
