A Day on the Front Lines of Mosul
After arriving in Iraq, I had an opportunity that I could not pass up. At 4.30 AM on Tuesday morning, I left Erbil with a fixer, a journalist, and a photographer towards the front lines of Mosul, a city still deep in conflict with Daesh (ISIS).
Armed with only a flack jacket, helmet, medical kit, and my camera, the journey to Mosul felt quite vulnerable. Approximately 15 miles out of Erbil, we met our first checkpoint. After several more, our car would be leaving the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which is autonomously controlled by Kurdish Government forces. Further along the road, Iraqi flags began to replace Kurdish ones, giving me the signal that we were now entering Arabic Iraq.
We approached an Iraqi Military base on the outskirts of Mosul and proceeded to wait for our convoy to leave. On the way in, we noticed several men digging a grave in a cemetery close by. We came to find out that it was being dug for an elderly man killed fleeing Mosul. I sat and tried to go back and forth with the locals, with some helping translate for me. Most of these men had lived under Daesh control for over a year, and they spoke of the horrors of that time. One man said he had barely eaten in over a month, and watched a number of his friends lose their lives. Every small village on the outskirts of Mosul, at one point, had experienced similar atrocities.
When our unit was ready to leave, we followed them to the outskirts of western Mosul. Previously under Daesh control, most of this area had been liberated in the last couple of weeks. The Rifai and Zinjili neighborhoods are the only ones left under Daesh control and lie in the center of western Mosul near the riverbank. This situation gave us the opportunity to drive around Mosul and come into the front lines from the north.
I could not have imagined the level of devastation throughout the city. Most buildings were completely collapsed and riddled with bullet holes. Cars and trucks used by Daesh for suicide attacks littered the streets. There were also craters, some 10 meters deep, from coalition airstrikes that left nothing standing. It was surreal, a total war zone. As we continued further into the city, coalition helicopters released several missiles into Daesh territory. The explosions were no longer on a television show or a video game, they were happening right in front of me. Upon reaching the front lines, these explosions became even more real. Approximately half a kilometer away, a car bomb exploded. Gun shots were ringing out from buildings throughout the city, with consistent mortar fire from the Iraqi Army meters from where we were standing.
From there we ventured on foot, visiting several Iraqi Army units scattered in houses throughout the city. It is here that the real battle is fought, street to street and house to house. They showed us some houses previously used by the terrorist group, some still containing bodies of Daesh foot soldiers. This was war, and it was brutal. After several more gunshots seemingly closer to our position, we decided it was time to leave. It was as close to the action as one could come without actually firing bullets. Although dangerous, it was an experience I will never forget.
Although there are fewer than 1,000 fighters in Mosul, with some military personnel stating that figure even lower, there is still a lot of work to be done. The battle for Mosul is far from over, and will not be won easily.