Before and after ISIS: Welcome to ‘free’ Raqqa – The Washington Post

The woman covered her face as she turned around, looking behind her as she waited to buy bread in a small shop in Raqqa, Syria. It was July 2013, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Islamic State and the Free Syria Army both were present in the only major Syrian city captured, just a few weeks before, by the opposition.

And yet, said Alice Martins, a photographer and frequent contributor to The Washington Post, there was already a sense that extremists of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, were slowly solidifying their presence in Raqqa.