“We were very surprised that this man who was Daesh himself told prisoners such things during his lectures on religion. The terrorists forced the prisoners to attend such lessons so that they could overcome their sinful habits,” Nur said.
She further said that the citizens of Mosul all anticipated of the approaching freedom. All of the neighbors gathered in her house where there was a satellite dish to watch the news and see the progress of the Iraqi army.
Satellite television had become a rarity because the terrorists destroyed any satellite dish that they came across.
On November 1, 2016, Nur and her family finally heard the first sounds of battle raging outside Mosul between Daesh and the Iraqi forces.
“The whistles of bullets and bomb explosions were heard all around. After 4 days a plane dropped a bomb on one of the houses on our street. Everyone ran outside because no one understood why the plane destroyed a civilian house,” Nur recalled.
“After this incident many residents of our district decided to flee. We decided to do the same and went back home to take some of our things. But as we approached our front door we saw that it had been broken in. We realized that the terrorists were inside our house and were on our roof but fortunately they did not fire at the army otherwise our house would have also been destroyed,” Nur said.
She together with her family had to stay at their relative’s house for some time while the battle ragged close to her house.
The operation to recapture Mosul, a key stronghold of Daesh in Iraq, began in October 2016 and resulted in the liberation of Mosul’s eastern part this January, but fighting continues in the city's western areas.
