SunOnline gained exclusive access to the bomb-battered, bloodstained city - once the centre of ISIS' ghoulish caliphate
WELCOME to Hell Square, the ghoulish spot where ISIS maniacs carried out weekly public executions, threw homosexuals off buildings and stuck enemies' heads on spikes.
SunOnline was given an exclusive tour of al-Naim Square in liberated Raqqa - now little more than a dusty graveyard of destroyed buildings, corpses and haunting memories.
Al-Naim was not always a place of death and bloodshed. Before ISIS took the city in 2014, children would play safely in the promenade then known as Paradise Square.
More recently, they have been forced to watch men being crucified, decapitated or dismembered in the shadow of Raqqa's now-infamous clock tower.
"Once they [ISIS] controlled all of Raqqa, every Friday there was public beheading here," says local man Bashar, who gave our man a tour of the bloodstained al-Naim square.
"The roundabout previously known as Paradise Square for its ice cream shops and playful atmosphere was quickly renamed Hell Square after the jihadists took control of the city.
"At first they killed only regime soldiers, but later they beheaded anyone who they said had committed crimes against ISIS... They even forced children to watch."
The horrors did not stop there. To deter its enemies and scare citizens into submission, the fanatics impaled the heads of its fallen enemies on spikes for days.
"I had to see my friend beheaded here," Bashar told Sun Online, barely able to hold in his tears
"To this day don’t know his crime, and [I think] most of the executions here were unjust."
ISIS stormed into Raqqa in January 2014 and overpowered rebel factions which opposed the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
They soon began a sick killing spree in the city and, according to Arab fighter Bashar who helped liberate the city, it was mostly foreign fighters who murdered locals.
"The executioners always wore masks but I could tell they were not Syrian," he said. "Most sounded like they were from Tunisia or Saudi Arabia."
ISIS fighters would sometimes make their prisoners watch their friends being killed before it was time for their executions.
"People were not allowed televisions in their houses, so they had cinemas like this all around the city," Bashar explains, pointing at the ISIS media point next the square.
The father-of-one adds: "They even forced the people who were sentenced to death to watch beheading videos so they could see what will happen to them.
Taxi driver Mohammed Abdullah, who suffered under ISIS rule for more than four years, says the beheadings became more common as ISIS tightened its rule on Raqqa.
"At first it was mainly anti-ISIS groups that they murdered in Al-Naim square," he explains. "But by the end of ISIS's rule, you could be killed even if you had a mobile [phone]."
Mohammad, 33, says "western jihadists" were among the killers, adding: "The media point next to square [cinema] was run by some western foreigners.
"I also saw them show [ISIS] films in English, French and Spanish there.
"Daesh [ISIS] carried out many atrocities [and] murders against my city – including in Al-Naim Square – and it will take us years to rebuild."
Sadly, al-Naim was just one site in Raqqa where blood was spilled mercilessly and unjustly.
"They also did beheadings and crucifixions by the clock tower," says shopkeeper Barzan, another local lived in the city during ISIS rule.
"When there was public execution, all the traffic was forced to stop and everyone had to watch."
Barzan, 26, says one of those who commonly carried out the killings was the "obese jihadist" known as "The Bulldozer".
"Yes – that man who featured in their propaganda videos - He used to carry out executions here. He would read out their crimes and then behead them with a large sword."
Crucifixions and beheadings were not the only murders that happened near the clock tower.
Pointing to the roof of a nearby five-story apartment he adds: "they would throw gays off that building."
"I saw them [once] arrest an old man... They tied him up on a chair and threw him from that building because he was [accused of being] a homosexual."
ISIS was finally liberated by the Syrian Defence Forces in October following a bloody battle with the desperate jihadis.
Much of the city's buildings were destroyed or badly damaged by the fighting and more than 250,000 people were forced to flee.
"The civilian council is helping to clear the streets [of bombs] and repair some of the public buildings," Bashar says while giving a tour of his destroyed house.
"He adds: "But as you can see my home [in Raqqa] it has been completely destroyed. I want and will return, but at the moment I have nothing to return to."
