It was never just a traffic circle.

Not before Syria fell into civil war and the Islamic State moved into Raqqa, when there was lush grass and a fountain at its center, and children splashed in the heat of the summer and visited the Cafe al-Naem ice cream shop.

And not after, when it became a symbol of the battle for Raqqa, and, the militants decided, an ideal spot for public executions.

The traffic circle is known as Naem — Arabic for “paradise.”

The final days of summer, August 2013