As a knot of US-backed Syrian fighters advanced gingerly into the Islamic State group bastion of Manbij, the crack of a jihadist sniper round forced them to take cover behind a bullet-riddled wall.
One crouching fighter identified the source and shouted directions into a walkie-talkie. Immediately, his colleagues fired a barrage of bullets at the shooter from behind the wall.
Backed by US-led coalition warplanes, the Syrian Democratic Forces — an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters — broke into western districts of Manbij on Thursday.
A unit of SDF fighters piled into a camouflaged, armoured vehicle they nicknamed Scorpion and drove past a blue English-language sign at city limits announcing: “Welcome to Manbij”.
Nearby, a large stone plaque erected by ISIS after its capture of the city in 2014 promised residents: “In the land of the Islamic State, you, your money, your religion and your honour are safe.”
Accompanied by a team of AFP journalists who were given exclusive access, the SDF fighters rolled slowly through the city’s western districts, clearing out the last ISIS snipers before attempting to push further towards the centre.
Blown-out apartment blocks stood empty, as thousands of civilians had already fled.
Wrecked cars blocked off sidestreets, probably booby-traps planted by the jihadists to slow down the SDF’s advance.
Several bodies lay abandoned on the street, unidentifiable as they began to decompose in the summer heat.
As dusk began to fall, SDF commanders ordered AFP’s journalists to pull back beyond city limits in anticipation of an ISIS counter-attack.
SDF forces began their drive on Manbij on May 31, crossing the Euphrates River from the east and encircling the city less than two weeks later.
At least 200 US special operations forces, as well as French special forces, are supporting the operation in an advisory capacity.
On the western edge of the city, SDF fighter Mervan Rojava stood outside an apartment block that had been partly destroyed by an ISIS car bomb.
“The first phase — surrounding Manbij — is over, and now we are gradually entering the city itself,” he told the reporters.
The lanky, bearded fighter wears a green bandana emblazoned with a reddish-pink floral pattern.
