Isil has strict and unchallenged rule over the town, which has a population of around 150,000, around the size of Exeter. Women must cover their hands and face and must not mix with men in public; Western clothes are banned, so are music and smoking. A former resident who used the pseudonym Ali Al-Khatib told the Telegraph: “Manbij used to be one of the most liberal places in Syria, but people have no freedom now, they are all slaves of Daesh,” he said, using the derogatory Arabic name for Isil.