The city of Mosul, the 2nd largest city of Iraq, was occupied by ISIS in june 2014. At the Al-Nuri mosque, ISIS leader Abu bakr Baghdadi declared the caliphate. In 2016 the military campaign from the Iraqi army, Kurdish peshmerga and the international coalition started to retake the city from ISIS. It was the largest military operation since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In july 2017 the city was liberated from ISIS. Due to heavy fighting almost the entire old city has been laid in ruins. A lot of work still has to be done in rebuilding the city, while people are trying to pick up their life again among these grim ruins.
Abu Hamza Lived next to the Al Nuri mosque, now largely in ruins, the minaret blown up by ISIS themselves. 'My home was destroyed but now I am starting to live there again. When ISIS came they took it from me, made it a hospital. Then it got destroyed by airstrike. The situation was horrible, ISIS did looting, killing, raping. The christian people left, as did many other ethnicities who were able to. Now we still need a lot of work to do the rebuilding'.
Mohammed works as a shovel driver at a construction site, is married and has kids. 'I want to be an inventor or creator, think of new products and services, maybe in medicine. But I'm not going to school. There is a lot of things I want to make, lot's of ideas in my head but there is no support.'
Short documentary of my visit to the city of Mosul (Dutch subtitles)
