‘Liberated’Mosul is still a dangerous place

Don't be fooled by the traffic and the crowded shops. there is constant fear, residents say.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries prepare food for fighters in Tal Abta district, west of Mosul, where Iraqi forces are preparing for the battle to retake the western side of the city, on February 17, 2017. Ahmad Al Rubaye / AFPShow less

MOSUL // The Iraqi forces that retook east Mosul from ISIL last month have moved on to their next battle, leaving a security vacuum that has residents complaining of a job half-done.

The traffic jams in the streets and the crowds swarming the shops of the neighbourhoods that ISIL controlled only weeks ago are deceptive, residents say.

“Everything looks like it’s back to normal but people know that bloodshed could be just around the corner and they live in constant fear,” said Omar, from a civil society group that has been trying to breathe life back into Iraq’s second city.

“Everybody is talking about the liberation but Daesh is still here,” the 25-year-old said. “Their drones are flying above our heads, target our homes, our hospitals and our mosques.”

The Joint Operations Command that has been coordinating Iraq’s fightback since ISIL seized a third of the country in 2014 announced that the east bank of Mosul had been “fully liberated” on January 24.

The Iraqi tricolour has replaced ISIL’s black flag above official buildings but the atmosphere is tense.

“The suicide car bombs are back and that brings back memories of Daesh,” said Umm Sameer, a resident of Al Zuhoor neighbourhood.

On February 9, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a popular restaurant in east Mosul, injuring several people.

Contrary to some expectations, roughly three-quarters of the population of east Mosul stayed home and weathered the fighting that engulfed their neighbourhoods when elite forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) punched into the city to take on the extremists.

Yet some of them are leaving now, even though their areas have been officially liberated.

Nuriya Bashir, in her sixties, left Mosul with her children and grandchildren this week and took shelter at the Hasansham displacement camp east of the city.

“My daughter’s husband was killed when a drone dropped a grenade. Daesh knew where he was that evening. The sleeper cells are everywhere,” she said.

Many people returned to their homes as soon as east Mosul was declared liberated, said camp manager Rizqar Obeid. “But over the past few days, we have received around 40 families who couldn’t bear the situation in the city any longer.”

There are security forces deployed in east Mosul but Umm Sameer accused them of “negligence”.

CTS fighters have now moved out to prepare for an assault on the city’s west bank.

“We have handed over this part of the city to the army,” said Abdulwahab Al Saadi, a CTS commander.

He admitted that insecurity remained in the east because of mrtar fire from militants on the west side.

But weaponised drones and mortar fire are not the only security concerns for east Mosul residents.

“The security shortcomings in east Mosul are obvious,” said Amer Al Bek, an activist with a local civil society group, criticising “the lack of professionalism of some of the security forces”.

Residents of four villages that lie just north of the city limits on the east bank of the Tigris have said that armed ISIL fighters are still in their midst.

“There are around 100 of them in the area, walking around freely with their weapons and combat gear,” said one resident, who added that the militants had recently executed several villagers.

“Why is the army not liberating our villages,” another resident asked.

In the city proper, the number of residents who stayed on during the fighting made effective screening for ISIL militants almost impossible.

The Institute for the Study of War said last week that the “inability to find a suitable hold force is also creating openings for ISIL to reinfiltrate, as shown by several attacks in eastern Mosul”.

Besides the immediate impact on the lives of civilians, the think tank warned that such reinfiltrations could also affect upcoming efforts to retake western Mosul, “forcing the ISF [Iraqi security forces] to fight on two fronts to recapture the city.”

* Agence France-Presse