On Sunday, falling bombs increased smoke over Islamic State’s last borough in east Syria, clouding the assemblage of vehicles and temporary shelters to which the group’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” has been reduced.

Air strikes and artillery began striking the area and smoke surged atop late in the afternoon as the U.S.-backed forces restarted their weeks-long assault.

A Kurdish TV channel telecasted live footage showing fires raging and the swift glow of rockets crushing into the enclave along with the sound of intense gunfire.

During an earlier pause in fighting, tiny figures of people still inside were clearly visible walking among hundreds of trucks, cars and minibuses bundled around a few concrete buildings by the bank of the Euphrates.

However, the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still walking free and regional officials think it would remain a threat after it has lost all its land.

The enclave is in Baghouz, a handful of small villages in farmland next to the river along the Iraqi border. In spite of its tiny size, over 60,000 people have fled it in the last two months, according to besieging Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

Almost half of them were surrendering Islamic State supporters, mostly family members of the jihadist fighters, also 5,000 armed rebels also surrendered, according to SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel.

Another 34,000 civilians were evacuated. Former residents from the region stated many of the civilians who left the Baghouz area in past weeks were Iraqi Sunnis with close tribal ties on the other side of the border in Deir al-Zor, a Sunni heartland.

They sought sanctuary in Syria for fear of reprisals by the Iraqi Hashd al Shaabi, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq, the former residents said.

Another SDF spokesman, Mustafa Bali, told that 100 militants and their families had surrendered overnight in the spot where strict rebels have been scaling a wretched last-stand defense.

On Friday suicide blasts aimed some of the people departing Baghouz and surrendering to the SDF. The SDF stated 1,306 “militants” had been killed alongside many who were wounded in the military campaign that started on 9th January, while 82 SDF fighters had been killed and 61 injured.

The SDF mentioned another 520 rebels had been arrested in special operations in the last Islamic State bastion.