The battle for Mosul stalls: 'we are fighting the devil himself' - for The Guardian

December 06, 2016 in tearsheets

Work covering the Mosul offensive for The Guardian as the fight between Iraqi forces and ISIS continues. Read the article here.

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A selfie in front of the reconstructed gateway of what is said to be the oldest continually inhabited structure in the world - the Erbil Citadel. #thisdigitalworld #Kurdistan #Iraq #Iraqi #Kurds #middleeast

Chai khana zor xosha #Kurdish #Iraq #Kurdistan

A year and a half ago I stood on this street corner and watched families carrying each other through the dust and rubble, fleeing the fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS in the Old City of Mosul. It was the first time people were able to escape the area after eight months of siege. Thirsty, malnourished, and exhausted, they flooded through the streets as Iraqi forces pushed forward in the opposite direction. Some were peppered with shrapnel from airstrikes, others barely had enough strength to walk. Bullets and bombs flew overheard and as night fell the stream of people fleeing stopped. @nzcam, @sangarsekany, and I hunkered down with a unit of Iraqi Special Forces soldiers in a house a few doors down from the doorframe pictured here. The whispers of bullets and echoing thud of explosions filled the night sky. Flares dropped overhead and burst into glowing bulbs, illuminating the battleground. We eventually drifted to sleep on the rooftop and were awakened early the next morning by a mortar landing a few meters away. We pulled armor and blankets over our bodies as the dust and shards of concrete dropped around us. Those days were filled with misery and terror, but on this street corner now is a new game room filled children and a vendor with a cart piled high with apples and onions. I met Saddam, the owner of the house we sheltered in and asked if I could see his house. Walking me inside, he showed off the fresh paint job and new tiling before leading me up to the roof. The sound of kids laughter echoed below us as a flock of birds flew by. I thanked Saddam for his house and how it kept me safe those days while he was away. “You are always welcome here,” he said with a smile.

Spending these weekends out with a bit more joy than we did in the past. #Kurdistan #Iraq #Iraqi #lakedukan #dukanlake #lake #kurdish #kurds

Fishin. Grammin. Staring. #Iraq #Kurdistan

Lake Dukan #Kurdistan #iraq

Lake Dukan #Kurdistan #Iraq

Sunset over the mountains near Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. #Iraq #Kurds #Kurdistan

The Great Zab running through Mirgasoror near Barzan, Iraq. The approximately 250 mile-long river starts in Turkey near Lake Van and flows into Iraq before joining the Tigris River near Mosul. Due to it's relentless current, the Great Zab was referred to by medieval period documents as "demonically possessed" (or “majnun” in Arabic). We did not try swimming. #Kurdistan #Iraq #rivers #Iraqi #mountains #middleeast #everydaymiddleeast

Unmarked gravestones at the partially completed Anfal genocide memorial just outside the town of Barzan in Iraqi Kurdistan. Beginning in 1986, Anfal was a four-year genocide campaign on Iraqi Kurds led by Saddam Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (nicknamed Chemical Ali), designed to crush Kurdish opposition. It primarily eliminated men of fighting age - typically between the ages of 15 to 50. Saddam’s forces executed Kurdish male captives in mass, bombed and destroyed villages, and resettled Arabs in traditionally Kurdish lands. The largest known massacre of Anfal was committed with chemical weapons on the city of Halabja on March 16, 1988 - an event known as the Halabja Massacre or “Bloody Friday”. The attack remains the single largest chemical weapons usage on a civilian population and resulted in the indiscriminate murder of up to 5000 people. In total the estimate number of those killed during Anfal varies significantly. Some international observers say the number is closer to 50,000 while Kurdish officials claim as many as 182,000 were killed. #Kurds #middleeast #kurdistan #iraqi #iraqikurdistan #anfal

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