Civilians fleeing Syria’s Raqqa find shelter in the ruined town of Tabqa

The war-ravaged homes are littered with mines and lack running water, but they are the only option for some Syrians escaping worse conditions under ISIL.

Tens of thousands have fled the battle to oust the extremists from Raqqa, with some seeking refuge in Tabqa town, 50 kilometres farther west.

US-backed fighters seized Tabqa from ISIL in May in an assault that left much of it in ruins. The devastated neighbourhoods appear uninhabitable, but they are the only shelters that the destitute escapees from Raqqa can find.

Anwar Al Khalaf heaved a shovel over his head, clearing debris blocking access to the bathroom and bedrooms in an abandoned flat in Tabqa.

“If we weren’t this desperate we wouldn’t be here,” said Mr Al Khalaf, 45. “We wouldn’t have cleaned this. But there’s no other place for us.”

The labourer fled Raqqa four months ago, just before the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces broke into the ISIL stronghold.

He and his five children spent months in displacement camps and even sleeping in the open air before making it to Tabqa this week.

Dozens of camps for the displaced have sprang up to accommodate those fleeing the battle against ISIL, but international aid groups have decried conditions in them.

In many, arrivals have access to neither mattresses nor tents, and water and food remain scarce.

Looking out over the destroyed neighbourhood on the banks of the Euphrates, Mr Khalaf expressed fear he could be kicked out of his hellish new home. “If the landlord comes back, my kids and I will be forced out into the street.”

Hadi Al Zaher, who heads the local neighbourhood council, more than 1,000 families have moved into the heavily damaged district.

“This neighbourhood doesn’t have the basic living requirements – water, food, mattresses, health care. We haven’t got any positive response from relief organisations,” Mr Zaher said.

Displaced families were streaming in daily from other ISIL-held areas rocked by clashes and bombardment, including Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, he said.

This week, scrawny children scrambled over the rubble and as the sun set on Tabqa, women in colourful robes hung towels and children’s clothes on lines – a little normality in a ruined landscape.

An elderly woman looked out from a bullet-riddled flat.

“Life is tough in this neighbourhood. Behind every window is a painful story,” she said.