The caliphate falls

By the start of February 2019, the Syrian Defence Force (SDF), backed by the international coalition against ISIS, had fought ISIS into a final pocket between the Euphrates River and the Iraqi desert. The coalition had predicted the presence of some two thousand fighters and their families and a short fight to finish them off. The fighting wouldn’t end for almost two months, in which tens of thousands of civilians, fighters and their families fled ISIS’s final enclave. This series captures the moment that people who had been living in Baghouz reached SDF screening points outside the village, their journey to detainment camps in Northern Syria and the bombardments which drove them to flee.

The United Nations stated that 100 people, mostly children, died on the way to Al-Hawl.

A badly malnourished three-month old child, Ilaf, from Raqqa is held by her mother, who fled from ISIL's last remaining territory in Syria after two days of heavy fighting, at a gathering point for civilians being taken to internment camp, near Baghuz, in north eastern Syria, on March 5, 2019.<br />
<br />
By the start of February 2019, the Syrian Defence Force (SDF), backed by the international coalition against ISIS, had fought ISIS into a final pocket between the Euphrates River and the Iraqi desert. The coalition had predicted the presence of some two thousand fighters and their families and a short fight to finish them off, but the fighting wouldn’t end for almost two months, in which tens of thousands of civilians, fighters and their families fled ISIS’s final enclave under terrible conditions. <br />
<br />
An unposed but consented picture taken during a press visit to a screening point outside Baghouz, organised by the SDF.

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A badly malnourished three-month old child, Ilaf, from Raqqa is held by her mother, who fled from ISIL's last remaining territory in Syria after two days of heavy fighting, at a gathering point for civilians being taken to internment camp, near Baghuz, in north eastern Syria, on March 5, 2019.

By the start of February 2019, the Syrian Defence Force (SDF), backed by the international coalition against ISIS, had fought ISIS into a final pocket between the Euphrates River and the Iraqi desert. The coalition had predicted the presence of some two thousand fighters and their families and a short fight to finish them off, but the fighting wouldn’t end for almost two months, in which tens of thousands of civilians, fighters and their families fled ISIS’s final enclave under terrible conditions.

An unposed but consented picture taken during a press visit to a screening point outside Baghouz, organised by the SDF.

2019 ISIS Baghouz 4261

sam tarling

The caliphate falls