Smoke rises in Tabqa after the city was hit by a Syrian Air Force airstrike in June 2013
On 26 November 2012, during the Syrian civil war, a main route from Raqqa to Aleppo passing through al-Thawrah along the Euphrates was dotted with both government and Syrian rebel checkpoints.[6] On 11 February 2013, rebel groups including the al-Nusra Front and Liwa Owais al-Qorani took over the city.[7] On 21 November, there was fierce fighting between government troops and rebels in the town,[8] but by 25 November, the rebels were back in control. The Islamic State took control in January 2014.[9]
On 22 March 2017, SOHR reported that an international coalition airstrike killed or injured more than 40 people.[10] The BBC reported 27 killed and 40 wounded.[11] During ISIL rule, the town's Catholic, Antiochian Orthodox Church and Assyrian Church of the East churches were turned into a parking garage, a weapons factory and a barn, with ISIL militants destroying all Christian symbols on the three churches. The Shia Al Zahraa' Mosque was destroyed and an Ismaili place of worship was turned into a children's training centre.[12] During IS rule, high ranking IS members would reside in the city, escaping the bombardments on its capital Raqqa. The Syrian Democratic Forces captured the town in the 2017 Battle of Tabqa[13][14] during which an estimated 40% of the buildings were either damaged or destroyed.[4]
Demographics
Prior to the Civil War, the majority of the city's inhabitants were SunniArabs, with Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian as well as Ismaili and Shiite Arab minorities.[15] The Assyrian minority consisted of around 1,000 people, with about half belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East, originating from the Khabour River villages, and the other half being Syriac Orthodox Christians, along with a few Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Protestant families.[16] But now the Christians have left and very few returned after liberation.[citation needed]
