A hundred miles from the tarpaulin tent which Shamima Begum now calls home, the caliphate she once crossed the world to join was in its death throes.
A dwindling band of Islamic State fighters were surrounded by advancing Kurdish forces and facing annihilation beneath waves of American and British airstrikes.
But the 19-year-old from east London was indifferent to the end of the jihadist territory. She was worried instead about about finding baby formula for her week-old son, Jarrar.
“I don’t really care what happens to Islamic State. That’s why I left,” Begum told The Telegraph. “I just care about my son.”
The young woman who once symbolised Isil’s ability to lure young adherents from…