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In a hospital ward in eastern Syria, two newlyweds struggle to take their eyes off each other. Yet their eye contact is not the gaze of an infatuated couple; they are grimacing.
It is just hours since a fire tore through their wedding reception, killing four and critically burning more than 20 others. Exhausted and in pain, they have not yet come to terms with their tragedy.
Stuck amid the human detritus of what remains of ISIS’s caliphate in Al Hol camp, Muhanad Al Kurdi proposed to his cousin Aida Mohammed two months ago.
Inter-familial marriages are common in Deir Ezzor, where they are from, and after three years in Al Hol people have long stopped putting their lives on hold in the hope things will return to normal.