Kurdish-led forces pronounced the death of the Islamic State group’s nearly five-year-old “caliphate” early on March 23 after flushing out diehard jihadists from their very last bastion in Deir ez-Zor province, eastern Syria.
In Al-Omar, an oil field used as the main SDF staging base for the final phase of the assault, fighters in their best fatigues laid down their weapons and broke into song and dance.
Photos by Delil Souleiman / AFP
