Raqqa In Focus - On The Frontline With The British Sniper Fighting ISIL

RAQQA, SYRIA - AUGUST 19: British volunteer fighter 'Macer Gifford' walks through an abandoned house as he tries to locate a spot to fire his sniper rifle toward ISIS positions on August 19, 2017 in Raqqa. Five years ago 'Macer Gifford' (as he likes to be known) was working in London for The Foreign Exchange. He is a 30-year-old, self-confessed 'country-bumpkin' from Cambridgeshire, England. When he saw the atrocities that were happening throughout Iraq and Syria under the banner of the so called Islamic State (ISIL) Macer thought enough was enough. In 2013 he attended a one-week military training course with the Kurdish militia in the mountains of Kurdistan and is now fighting as a sniper with the Syriac Military Council (MFS) on the front line in Raqqa.The MFS is a group of Assyrian Christians who fight alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF was created in 2015 with the specific purpose of fighting ISIL and was armed by former US President Obama. The second Battle of Raqqa was launched in June 2017 and is the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa Campaign by the SDF. (Photo by Rick Findler/Getty Images)