Islamic State occupation of Mosul explained

ISIS occupation of Mosul
Partof:the War in Iraq
Date:10 June 2014–21 July 2017
Place:Mosul, Iraq

The occupation of Mosul by the Islamic State began after the fall of Mosul when Islamic State fighters took control of the city on 10 June 2014. Mosul was a strategically important city for the Islamic State and was a target by anti-Islamic State forces. Over the course of battles in 2015 and 2016–2017, the Iraqi Armed Forces, aided by Peshmerga and CJTF–OIR forces, fully liberated Mosul by 21 July 2017.

The Islamic State carried out a brutal occupation in Mosul, resulting in the death, torture, rape, and disappearance of many of the city's citizens. Women were subjected to a strict variant of Sharia law while members of religious and ethnic minorities were killed or evicted from the city. Widespread looting and destruction of cultural, religious, and historical artifacts occurred. Armed resistance against the occupation took place in and around the city, mainly undertaken by Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian, and Shia groups.

Background

See main article: articles, Fall of Mosul and Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014). In June 2014, the Islamic State quickly took control of Mosul after the Iraqi troops stationed there had fled.[1] [2] Troop shortages and infighting among top officers and Iraqi political leaders had benefitted the Islamic State and caused a panic that led to Mosul's abandonment.[3] Kurdish intelligence had been warned by a reliable source in early 2014 that ISIL would eventually attack Mosul, and former members of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party had informed the USA and the UK,[4] but Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, and the Defence Minister turned down repeated offers of help from the Peshmerga. When the Iraqi Army fled, and were massacred, the Islamic State acquired three divisions' worth of up-to-date American arms and munitions—including M1129 Stryker 120-mm mortars and at least 700 armoured Humvee vehicles.[5]

Citizenry

Following the fall of Mosul, an estimated half a million people escaped on foot or by car during the next two days.[6] Many residents had trusted the Islamic State fighters at first in the city, and according to a member of the UK's Defence Select Committee, Mosul "fell because the [predominantly Sunni] people living there were fed up with the sectarianism of the Shia-dominated Iraqi government."[7]

According to western and pro-Iraqi government press, Mosul residents were de facto prisoners,[8] forbidden to leave the city unless they left the Islamic State a significant collateral of family members, personal wealth, and property. They could then leave after paying a significant "departure tax"[9] to be able to leave the city for three days, and for a higher fee they could surrender their home permanently, pay the fee, and leave for good. If those with a three-day pass failed to return within that time, their assets would be seized and their family killed.[10]

Human rights abuses

Scores of people in Mosul were tortured and executed without a fair trial.[11] [12] Civilians in Mosul were not permitted to leave Islamic State-controlled areas and civilians were executed when they tried to flee Mosul.[13] The killing of civilians, enemy soldiers, and members of the Islamic State who were accused of offenses was a regular occurrence and peaked during the Mosul offensive.[14] [15]

Treatment of women

Women were forcibly taken by Islamic State men to become their brides. Women were required to be accompanied by a male guardian[16] and women had to be fully covered up in black, head to toe, in observance of a strict variant of Sharia law. Failure to follow the regulations was punished by fines or male relatives being given 40 or more lashes.[17] Men were also required to fully grow their beards and hair in line with Islamic State edicts.

The Canadian-based NGO the RINJ Foundation, which operated medical clinics in Mosul,[18] claimed that rape cases in the city proved a pattern of genocide, and hoped it would lead to a conviction of genocide against the Islamic State in the International Criminal Court.[19] [20]

In August 2015, it was reported that captured women and girls were being sold to sex slave traders.[21] Most female Yazidis from Mosul and the greater Mosul region (Nineveh) were imprisoned and occasionally killed for resistance to being sold as sex slaves. Iraqi Turkmen women and girls would also suffer a fate similar to Yazidi women.[22] [23]

Persecution of religious and ethnic minorities

Mosul was one of the areas which the Iraqi Turkmen genocide took place in. Mosul was also once home to at least 70,000 Assyrian Christians, there were possibly none left in Mosul after ISIL took over; any who remained were forced to pay a tax for remaining Christian and lived under a constant threat of violence.[24] [25] The indigenous Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamian ancestry, whose history in the region dates back over 5,000 years, saw their churches and monasteries vandalized and burned down,[26] their ancient Assyrian heritage sites dating to the Iron Age destroyed, and their homes and possessions seized by the Islamic State.[27] They also faced ultimatums to either convert to Islam, leave their ancient homelands, or be murdered.[28] Attacks against the Christian community in Mosul were not new however, a series of bloody attacks against Christians living in Mosul occurred in 2008 and reduced the religious population in the city.[29]

The Islamic State also issued an edict expelling (in effect ethnically cleansing) the remaining predominantly ethnic Assyrian and Armenian Christian Mosul citizens after they refused to attend a meeting to discuss their future status. According to Duraid Hikmat, an expert on minority relationships and a resident of Mosul, the Christians were afraid to attend. Emboldened Islamic State authorities systematically destroyed and vandalized Abrahamic cultural artifacts, such as the cross from St. Ephrem's Cathedral, the tomb of Jonah, and a statue of the Virgin Mary. Islamic State militants destroyed and pillaged the Tomb of Seth. Artifacts from the tomb were removed to an unknown location.[30]

Students from Muslim Shia and Sufi minorities were also abducted.[31]

According to a UN report, ISIL forces persecuted ethnic groups in and near Mosul. The Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Mandeans, Kawliya, and Shabaks were victims of unprovoked, religiously motivated murders, assaults, theft, kidnappings, and the destruction of their cultural sites.

Armed resistance

The Prophet Yunus Brigade, named after the Mosque of Prophet Yunus, also known as the Mosul Brigade, operated inside Mosul and conducted urban guerrilla warfare.[39] The brigade claimed to have killed members of the Islamic State with sniper fire in 2014.[40] In the countryside around Mosul, Peshmerga, Assyrian militias, and the Iraqi Turkmen Front had also taken up arms to resist oppression by the Islamic State, and successfully repelled attacks and prevented an invasion on their towns and villages.[41] [42] The Popular Mobilization Forces — an umbrella group that’s predominantly Shia Arabs but also includes Sunni Arab tribal fighters, Christian militias, Yazidi militias, and other non-military forces, played a big role in the war against the Islamic State.[43] In one notable incident, groups inside the city reportedly killed five Islamic State militants and destroyed two of their vehicles.[44]

Notes and References

  1. News: 11 June 2014 . Iraqi insurgents seize city . BBC .
  2. News: 11 June 2014 . Militant group seizes cities in Iraq . CNN .
  3. News: 14 October 2014 . How Mosul fell – An Iraqi general disputes Baghdad's story . Reuters .
  4. News: Spencer . Richard . 22 June 2014 . How US and Britain were warned of Isis advance in Iraq but 'turned a deaf ear' . . 21 December 2014.
  5. News: Holloway . Adam . Adam Holloway . 26 September 2014 . Sharing a border with Isil – the world's most dangerous state . The Daily Telegraph . 21 December 2014.
  6. News: 29 August 2014 . Since Islamic State swept into Mosul, we live encircled by its dark fear . The Guardian .
  7. News: 16 June 2014 . Under an ISIS Flag, the Sons of Mosul Are Rallying . The Daily Beast .
  8. News: Loveday morris . October 19, 2015 . Isis in Iraq: Mosul residents are paying traffickers and risking their lives to escape cruel grip of Islamic State . The Independent .
  9. Web site: Sinan Salaheddin . March 13, 2015 . ISIS Blocks Trapped Residents From Leaving Iraq's Mosul . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150825111019/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/isis-mosul-residents-trapped_n_6862898.html . August 25, 2015 . Huffington Post.
  10. News: Abdelhak Mamoun . Mar 11, 2015 . ISIS warns people of Mosul not to leave city . Iraqi News .
  11. Web site: UN Envoy Condemns Public Execution of Human Rights Lawyer, Ms. Sameera Al-Nuaimy . United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
  12. Web site: Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 6 July – 10 September 2014 . UNAMI Human Rights Office . Executions following illegal/irregular/unlawful courts, in disrespect of due process and fair trial standards.
  13. News: Laila Ahmed . 9 June 2015 . Inside Mosul: What's life like under Islamic State? . BBC News .
  14. News: Mar 13, 2015 . ISIS: Mosul residents trapped . The Huffington Post . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150825111019/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/isis-mosul-residents-trapped_n_6862898.html . 2015-08-25.
  15. Web site: 11 July 2017 . The battle for west Mosul has caused a civilian catastrophe .
  16. News: 29 September 2014 . Islamic State crisis: Mother fears for son at Mosul school . BBC News .
  17. News: 21 November 2016 . Fleeing Iraqi Women Tell of Harsh Treatment in Mosul - WSJ . Wall Street Journal .
  18. Web site: Larry Hart . The Heroes of Mosul . Times Of Israel.
  19. Web site: 25 August 2015 . Rape in Conflict Is a War Crime, No Matter How You Spin It . Huffington Post / World Post.
  20. Web site: European Parliament resolution on the situation in Northern Iraq/Mosul . 23 February 2017 . The European Parliament .
  21. Web site: Priya Joshi . 3 May 2015 . Isis: Hundreds of Yazidi captives slaughtered in Mosul . International Business Times.
  22. Web site: Priya Joshi . 3 May 2015 . Isis: Hundreds of Yazidi captives slaughtered in Mosul . International Business Times.
  23. Web site: . October 2, 2015 . Catching The ISIS Child Sex Slave Traders in Mosul Iraq . The RINJ Foundation.
  24. Web site: You are being redirected... . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160203095423/http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/news/51224 . 2016-02-03.
  25. Web site: Judit Neurink . June 19, 2014 . Mosul Christians Out of the City for Good . Rudaw.
  26. Web site: ISIS destroy the oldest Christian monastery in Mosul, Iraq . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160202173335/http://www.newyorknewsgrio.com/world/117902-isis-destroy-the-oldest-christian-monastery-in-mosul-iraq.html . 2016-02-02.
  27. News: Hawramy . Fazel . 24 July 2014 . 'They are savages,' say Christians forced to flee Mosul by Isis . The Guardian .
  28. Web site: 9 November 2014 . Patrick Cockburn reports on the brutal reality of life in Mosul under Isis . Independent.co.uk.
  29. News: 10 November 2008 . Attacks in Mosul force Christians to flee . . 26 October 2011.
  30. News: 26 July 2014 . ISIS destroys Prophet Sheth shrine in Mosul . Al Arabiya . 1 August 2014.
  31. Web site: Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 6 July – 10 September 2014. 21 December 2014. UNAMI and OHCHR.
  32. News: 24 July 2014 . Isis militants blow up Jonah's tomb . The Guardian . 24 July 2014.
  33. News: Inside the Assyrian palace revealed in fight for Mosul . . Mosul . Anthony Loyd .
  34. Buchanan, Rose Troup and Saul, Heather (25 February 2015) ISIS burns thousands of books and rare manuscripts from Mosul's libraries The Independent
  35. News: 27 Feb 2015 . ISIL video shows destruction of Mosul artefacts . .
  36. News: Shaheen . Kareem . 26 February 2015 . Isis fighters destroy ancient artefacts at Mosul museum . .
  37. News: Kariml . Ammar . Mojon . Jean-Marc . 31 July 2014 . In Mosul, resistance against ISIS rises from city's rubble . The Daily Star . Lebanon . 1 August 2014 . 8 December 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151208165350/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jul-31/265532-in-mosul-resistance-against-isis-rises-from-citys-rubble.ashx . dead .
  38. Web site: Erkuş . Sevil . 25 September 2014 . Mosul Consulate 'overpowered' by ISIL militants at the gates, Turkish hostage says . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924111831/http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/mosul-consulate-overpowered-by-isil-militants-at-the-gates-turkish-hostage-says.aspx . 24 September 2015 . 21 December 2014 . . dmy-all.
  39. News: Mezzofiore . Gianluca . 30 July 2014 . Mosul Brigades: Local Armed Resistance to Islamic State Gains Support . International Business Times . . 1 August 2014.
  40. News: IS Cracks Down In Mosul, Fearing Residents Mobilizing Against Them . Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty . 16 October 2014 . Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
  41. Web site: 22 February 2015 . The Assyrian Christian militia are keeping well-armed Isis at bay – but they are running out of ammunition . .
  42. Web site: Cetti-Roberts . Matt . 7 March 2015 . Inside the Christian Militias Defending the Nineveh Plains . dead . http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20160915094021/https://warisboring.com/inside%2Dthe%2Dchristian%2Dmilitias%2Ddefending%2Dthe%2Dnineveh%2Dplains%2Dfe4a10babeed . 15 September 2016 . 8 January 2017 . dmy-all.
  43. Web site: Iraq's Shia Militias: The Double-Edged Sword Against ISIS . .
  44. Web site: 18 July 2016 . Mosul residents clash with ISIS members - Iraqi News .

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