of this attack, the Islamists retook the villages of Yalanli, Qatwyran (Qurt Wiran), Qart, Al-Buwyr, Al-Jamousyah, and Al-Dandaniyah from the SDF. In Al-Buwyr, ISIL fighters then proceeded to execute 24 civilians. The Amaq News Agency also claimed that ISIL had recaptured the Bannawi neighbourhood in Manbij city. Pro-Kurdish news outlets such as Hawar News Agency disputed that the aforementioned villages had fallen, though it reported that clashes took place in the villages Bozgich and Misherfat in northwestern Manbij on the night of 28–29 July. It was also reported that the SDF had gained full control of the Kijli neighborhood in Manbij. Battle for the last ISIL pockets and capture of Manbij city While ISIL forces continued their attacks in the countryside on 31 July, as heavy fighting was reported in Adasa village west of Manbij, the SDF achieved a number of breakthroughs in the city itself. SDF fighters captured the Al-Na'imi and Mestosaf neighborhoods, the Ghasania school and much of the Al-Jazeera road. According to SOHR, the SDF had by then captured 40% of Manbij, while Reuters reported that 70% of the city had fallen to the SDF, including most of the west, east and north. In consequence, ISIL forces were mostly confined to the old quarters in the central and southern city. By this point, 40,000 to 50,000 civilian residents of Manbij had fled the city, although a number of locals remained to volunteer with the SDF and had begun training to fight ISIL. Sometime in course of July, prominent Australian ISIL battalion commander Ezzit Raad was also killed in the city. On 1 August, the SDF captured Jib Nashama village south of Manbij. The next day, SDF fighters again managed to break through ISIL frontlines in Manbij, seizing the Bujiya roundabout in the city center, and the Bashar Roundabout to the south. The SDF advances since late July had reduced the ISIL forces in Manbij to a number of isolated pockets, with different news outlets claiming that the SDF had taken 60–80% of the city. By 3 August, there was still bitter fighting at the Jazeera Road, where SDF fighters coming from the north and south attempted to cut off the ISIL troops in the east from the city center, to which most ISIL forces had begun to retreat. Meanwhile, the isolated ISIL pocket at Tetbekat Prison in western Manbij continued to resist. It was also reported that