SEEKING peace in a city divided by ISIS

Mosul Between War and Peace

‘Revenge’ is a word that seems to define Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.

It was here, in June 2014, that ‘Islamic State’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the Caliphate. Mosul’s bloody liberation came only two years later, after a nine-month battle. And with the liberation came revenge, filling the streets with corpses of suspected ISIS members, often accused on dubious grounds.

Shortsighted American policy, implemented after the 2003 invasion, ignored Iraq’s sectarian complexities, marginalising the Sunni minority in - here it is again - revenge for their allegiance to Saddam Hussein. So when ISIS appeared, branding themselves as ‘protectors of the Sunnis’, their promises of stability and security were welcomed in the Sunni-majority Mosul. Many joined them. And many did not.

Today ISIS is gone, with the biggest losers being the Sunnis it proclaimed to protect. SWAT (Iraq’s counter-terrorism unit) still hunts ISIS sleeper cells. The Civil Defence combs the Old City for corpses of ISIS fighters and their hostages, many still wearing suicide belts. The children of fathers killed in service to the ‘State’, are bullied at school.

And yet, among them are those who look back with nostalgia for the Caliphate.