SYRIA
RODI SAID
Manbij, Syria—A man has his beard cut off on August 12 after the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces took back Manbij from the Islamic State militant group, which had been using civilians as human shields in the city near the Turkish border. Reuters pictures and video showed residents celebrating their release by smoking, cutting off their beards and burning their niqabs in defiance of the strict interpretation of Islam imposed by ISIS. The capture of the city was strategically important, as it lies on the supply route from Raqqa, ISIS’s de facto capital, and Turkey.