After months of brutal fighting, the battle to retake Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State caliphate, is almost over. Scroll down to follow photographer Achilleas Zavallis and reporter Martin Chulov as they journey from the Iraqi border to the wasteland of the frontline of the ancient Syrian city where the few remaining Isis fighters are making their last stand.

Crossing the Syrian border

Bobbing rhythmically over barren hills, the donkey heads of Rojava’s oil trade draw crude from the ground, sending it down thin pipes to a refinery nearby. These basic black pumps are the linchpin of the region’s economy, and are central to what happens after Isis is finally pushed from Raqqa and its surrounds. Oil could galvanise Kurdish claims on autonomy. The subterranean riches here are also tempting for forces fighting to the south, Russian, Iranian, American and Syrian.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest General view of an oil-field near the Fysh Khabwr border crossing.

Driving between Kobani and Ain Issa

Syria’s newest refugees arrive most days here, on a dusty outpost near a teeming refugee camp. They tumble exhausted from clapped out lorries and cars that have barely made the journey. Their faces swathed in scarves to avoid the dust and flies, they settle into makeshift tents, and wait.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A truck carrying civilians who fled the fighting in Raqqa, seen on the road leading to the Ain Issa IDP camp.

Many come from Raqqa. Others from towns and villages close to Deir ez-Zor, where Isis is fighting yet another last stand. Their fate, like that of the millions of others who have fled five years of war and insurgency, is uncertain.

Visiting the Ain Issa IDP camp

Refugees from Syria and Iraq are crammed into this camp, one of the biggest in the Raqqa hinterland. Some had been displaced more than three times before arriving here. “Everywhere we go, the airstrikes follow,” said Abu Jassem, originally from Falluja in Iraq.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest View of the Ain Issa IDP camp.

In one corner are the widows and orphans of foreign fighters. Blond and red-headed children frolic in a small courtyard. Their mothers hide behind curtains, many wearing chadors. They are stigmatised by their captors and by other refugees.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Displaced Syrians who fled the fighting in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor seen inside a tent that serves as a barber shop in the Ain Issa IDP camp.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A young girl and her baby sister seen inside a section of the Ain Issa IDP camp, where family members of foreign Isis fighters are kept.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Civilians who fled the fighting in Deir ez-Zor rest inside a tent at the Ain Issa IDP camp.

East Raqqa YPG base

In this half-finished concrete building, fighters in the war with Isis rest and recuperate, before heading to the frontline a mile away. Their dead and wounded are brought here. They sleep, eat and plan the war in the room upstairs, from where they can see smoke rising from the battle.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A general view shows smoke rising from an Isis position inside Raqqa, shortly after it was hit by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Coalition artillery.

Here, Hazam, a Kurd from Kobani, who lost a hand in the battle for his home town, oversees a fighting force of mostly Arab youths from Raqqa. Hazam is supervised by a Kurd from the Turkish mountains.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hazem (centre) from Kobani, who leads a People’s Protection Unit fighting in Raqqa, gets an update from the frontline over a two-way radio.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest SDF fighters seen inside a building used as a temporary People’s Protection Units base.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fighter with the People’s Protection Units checks a map of the frontlines.

Fighting nearby

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters help a shellshocked comrade to his feet. The fighter and his team were hit by an RPG round, fired by Isis militants, while trying to assist cut-off members of their unit on the east Raqqa front line.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters help a shellshocked SDF fighter to his feet. Photograph: Achilleas Zavallis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest SDF fighters who got injured while trying to assist a cut-off team from their unit, seen on the back of truck while being transported in a nearby field hospital.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest SDF fighters load the dead body of a dead SDF fighter on a truck.

Approaching the frontline

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter seen at a temporary SDF base, overlooking a cemetery that was destroyed during heavy clashes with ISIS militants.

Less than half a mile from the Raqqa clock tower, anti-Isis fighters are dug into the ruins of several buildings. Some use holes in a wall to scope for extremists further on.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A YPG fighter walks near the entrance of a tunnel used by ISIS militants to avoid detection while moving between their positions.

Their foes, like them, move through holes they have smashed through walls. The enemy is often less than two buildings away, hidden in the remnants of a ruined city that was once the heart of their so-called caliphate, but volunteers fighting with the Kurds say they have never seen a live Isis member.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest YPG fighters move through a hole opened by the YPG on the side of a building, to avoid being spotted by Isis snipers as they move towards the frontline. Photograph: Achilleas Zavallis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An SDF fighter checks for enemy movements, from a sniper position overlooking Isis-held areas on the east Raqqa frontline.

Burnt-out cars are used as a temporary road blockade near a SDF base as a precautionary measure against Isis suicide car bombs.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Burned out cars used as a temporary road blockade.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter rests inside a temporary SDF base near the East Raqqa front line. Photograph: Achilleas Zavallis

Near Clock Tower Square

Beyond the jagged wasteland there is a prize that all those fighting Isis are aiming for: a clock tower that stands on a small roundabout. Public executions were routinely performed there, and some of the group’s most infamous members lived nearby.