12 am 22/6/2014 Mosul
I have just come back from a car ride in the streets and neighbourhoods of Mosul. The Woods area is full of families on the footpaths as if nothing ever happened. ISIS armed men are present among them, inside their new cars. The city is safe and quiet, the roads are trafficked. During the day, the people are scared and anxious, exchanging rumours; however, at night, they’re taking walks in the woods. This extreme paradox is very scary.
Abu Tamam’s statue no longer exists. No one knows where they took it to after dropping it, probably they exploded it after it was taken down and was left in its place for two days.
The ex- centre of Counter-Terrorism has become the main ISIS center. Few Arab armed men, whom I have seen in the early days of the crisis [Tunisians and Algerians] are securing the gates of the center. One of them is white-headed, in his sixties, carries a gun on his waist. The situation inside the city does not reflect that the armed men are ready for a possible attack, instead, it reflects that they feel like they have settled completely and are not thinking about a possible attack on them.
At the University of Mosul area, and on its main TV in the street, a movie named “Stricts’ Creak” is being displayed continuously, and is the 4th edition of ISIS terrorist organisation. The movie contains missions of killing Iraqi soldiers and kidnapping them on Mosul-Baghdad road in the past days. Heavy equipment [cranes etc] are entering the University of Mosul, no one knows what purpose they serve.