Hundreds of fighters and civilians trudged out of the Islamic State's final scrap of territory in eastern Syria this weekend after US-led forces pummeled it from the ground and sky. Once the size of Britain, the self-declared Islamic caliphate is just a warren of tents and tunnels now. But the final battle has been grindingly slow.
On Monday the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, said that its forces were advancing slowly on account of the number of civilians still trapped inside the village of Baghouz. Thousands have left the village in recent weeks, but an unknown number remain. Some are too scared to leave, escapees say. Others are refusing to abandon the cause, even in its dying days.
After a 10-day truce to encourage more surrenders, the battle resumed this weekend with a ferocity previously unseen in the small corner of Syria. The earth and palm trees shook as bombs rained down. At night, fires framed the silhouettes of what remains of Baghouz. Victory, the SDF predicted, will come "in a short period."