Air strikes, shelling and other heavy clashes have shaken a small sliver of western Mosul in renewed fighting, a day after the Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State in the city.

US Marines have warned guerrillas in Iraq’s war-torn city of Fallujah that they have only days to hand over their heavy weapons or face a possible attack.

Reports of their deaths may be greatly exaggerated. Given the dodgy quality of the information that the Americans and the British have been indoctrinating the rest of the world with, there is still a good chance that Qusay and Uday — not to mention the 14 year-old boy — are alive and well.