A Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter reacts as he mourns near the body of his brother, who was an FSA fighter and died during an offensive against Islamic State fighters to take control of Qabasin town, on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria January 10, 2017. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

A Syrian man sells vegetables in front of a damaged tank in Homs, on December 20, 2024. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, ousting president Bashar al-Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP Photo)

A female sniper of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) monitors the area during a celebration at the iconic Al- Naim square in Raqa on October 19, 2017, after retaking the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. The SDF fighters flushed jihadist holdouts from Raqa' s main hospital and municipal stadium, wrapping up a more than four- month offensive against what used to be the inner sanctum of IS' s self- proclaimed “caliphate”. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP Photo)

Iraqi army soldiers fire mortars against the Islamic State militants, at Shahrazad village 2 miles (3 kilometers) east of Mosul, Iraq, Monday, November 14, 2016. A suicide bombing in Iraq targeted the Shiite sacred city of Karbala on Monday, killing at least six civilians, the latest attempt by the Islamic State group to distract from the government forces' offensive on the IS-held northern city of Mosul. (Photo by Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

An athlete pulls a 15-tonne truck during a Truck-Pull event marking the upcoming Independence Day in the Belarus capital Minsk, on July 3, 2014. The former Soviet nation celebrates its Independence Day on July 3 in memory of the end of Belarus occupation by Nazi Germany troops during the Red Army main summer offensive in 1944. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo)

Iraqis run for cover as they flee Mosul's Al-Tayaran neighbourhood on February 28, 2017, during an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the area from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Hundreds of civilians fled through the desert to escape fighting and privation in Mosul, joining thousands of others who left their homes as conditions worsen in the city's west. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Iraqi women cry over their brother's body, who was killed by a mortar shell fired by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists on civilians who were gathered to receive aid, in Al-Risala neighbourhood on March 22, 2017, as an ongoing offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the city from the group continues. Iraqi forces launched a major operation to recapture west Mosul – the most-populated urban area still held by IS – on February 19, and have retaken a series of neighbourhoods from the jihadists. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)