| Part of theWar in Iraq (2013–2017) | |
 Iraqi soldiers write "the State ofImam Ali remains" (challenging the Islamic State's motto: "the Islamic State remains") on an Islamic State sign in eastern Mosul, January 2017. | |
| Date | 10 June 2014 – 21 July 2017 (3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 4 days) |
|---|---|
| Location | Mosul,Iraq |
| Type | Military occupation |
| Cause | Fall of Mosul |
| Perpetrator |  Islamic State |
| Outcome | Mosulrecaptured by Iraqi forces |
| Deaths | 7,000+ by mass executions |
Theoccupation of Mosul by the Islamic State began after thefall of Mosul whenIslamic State fighters took control of the city on 10 June 2014, and becamethede facto government in the area.Mosul was a strategically important city for the Islamic State and was a target by anti-Islamic State forces. Over the course of battles in2015 and2016–2017, theIraqi Armed Forces, aided byPeshmerga andCJTF–OIR forces, fully recaptured Mosul by 21 July 2017.
The Islamic State carried out a brutal occupation in Mosul, resulting in the death, torture, rape, and disappearance of many of the city's citizens. Women were subjected to a strict variant ofSharia law while members of religious and ethnic minorities were killed or evicted from the city. Widespread looting and destruction of cultural, religious, and historical artifacts occurred. Armed resistance against the occupation took place in and around the city, mainly undertaken byKurdish,Turkmen,Assyrian, andShia groups.
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In June 2014, theIslamic State quickly took control of Mosul after the Iraqi troops stationed there had fled.[1][2] Troop shortages and infighting among top officers and Iraqi political leaders had benefitted the Islamic State and caused a panic that led to Mosul's abandonment.[3] Kurdish intelligence had been warned by a reliable source in early 2014 that ISIL would eventually attack Mosul, and former members of theIraqi Ba'ath Party had informed theUSA and theUK,[4] butPrime Minister of Iraq,Nouri al-Maliki, and theDefence Minister turned down repeated offers of help from thePeshmerga. When the Iraqi Army fled, and were massacred, the Islamic State acquired three divisions' worth of up-to-date American arms and munitions—includingM1129 Stryker 120-mm mortars and at least 700 armouredHumvee vehicles.[5]
Following the fall of Mosul, an estimated half a million people escaped on foot or by car during the next two days.[6] Many residents had trusted the Islamic State fighters at first in the city, and according to a member of the UK'sDefence Select Committee, Mosul "fell because the [predominantly Sunni] people living there were fed up with thesectarianism of the Shia-dominated Iraqi government."[7][5]
According to western and pro-Iraqi government press, Mosul residents werede facto prisoners,[8] forbidden to leave the city unless they left the Islamic State a significant collateral of family members, personal wealth, and property. They could then leave after paying a significant "departure tax"[9] to be able to leave the city for three days, and for a higher fee they could surrender their home permanently, pay the fee, and leave for good. If those with a three-day pass failed to return within that time, their assets would be seized and their family killed.[10]
Scores of people in Mosul were tortured and executed without a fair trial.[11][12] Civilians in Mosul were not permitted to leave Islamic State-controlled areas and civilians were executed when they tried to flee Mosul.[13] The killing of civilians, enemy soldiers, and members of the Islamic State who were accused of offenses was a regular occurrence and peaked during theMosul offensive.[14][15]
Women were forcibly taken by Islamic State men to become their brides. Women were required to be accompanied by a male guardian[6][16] and women had to be fully covered up in black, head to toe, in observance of a strict variant ofSharia law.[13] Failure to follow the regulations was punished by fines or male relatives being given 40 or more lashes.[17] Men were also required to fully grow their beards and hair in line with Islamic State edicts.
The Canadian-based NGO theRINJ Foundation, which operated medical clinics in Mosul,[18] claimed that rape cases in the city proved a pattern of genocide, and hoped it would lead to a conviction ofgenocide against the Islamic State in theInternational Criminal Court.[19][20]
In August 2015, it was reported that captured women and girls were being sold tosex slave traders.[21] Most femaleYazidis from Mosul and the greater Mosul region (Nineveh) were imprisoned and occasionally killed for resistance to being sold as sex slaves.Iraqi Turkmen women and girls would also suffer a fate similar to Yazidi women.[22][23]
Mosul was one of the areas which theIraqi Turkmen genocide took place in. Mosul was also once home to at least 70,000AssyrianChristians, there were possibly none left in Mosul after ISIL took over; any who remained were forced to pay a tax for remaining Christian and lived under a constant threat of violence.[24][25] Theindigenous Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamian ancestry, whose history in the region dates back over 5,000 years, saw their churches and monasteries vandalized and burned down,[26] their ancient Assyrian heritage sites dating to theIron Age destroyed, and their homes and possessions seized by the Islamic State.[27] They also faced ultimatums to either convert to Islam, leave their ancient homelands, or be murdered.[27][28] Attacks against the Christian community in Mosul were not new however,a series of bloody attacks against Christians living in Mosul occurred in 2008 and reduced the religious population in the city.[29]
The Islamic State also issued an edict expelling (in effectethnically cleansing) the remaining predominantly ethnicAssyrian andArmenian Christian Mosul citizens after they refused to attend a meeting to discuss their future status. According to Duraid Hikmat, an expert on minority relationships and a resident of Mosul, the Christians were afraid to attend.[30] Emboldened Islamic State authorities systematicallydestroyed and vandalizedAbrahamic cultural artifacts, such as the cross from St. Ephrem's Cathedral, thetomb of Jonah, and a statue of theVirgin Mary. Islamic State militants destroyed and pillaged the Tomb ofSeth. Artifacts from the tomb were removed to an unknown location.[31]
Students from Muslim Shia and Sufi minorities were also abducted.[32]
According to a UN report, ISIL forces persecuted ethnic groups in and near Mosul. The Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Mandeans,Kawliya, andShabaks were victims of unprovoked, religiously motivated murders, assaults, theft, kidnappings, and the destruction of their cultural sites.[30]
The ProphetYunus Brigade (Arabic:كتيبة النبي يونس), named after theMosque of Prophet Yunus, also known as the Mosul Brigade, operated inside Mosul and conductedurban guerrilla warfare.[40] The brigade claimed to have killed members of the Islamic State with sniper fire in 2014.[41] In the countryside around Mosul,Peshmerga,Assyrian militias, and theIraqi Turkmen Front had also taken up arms to resist oppression by the Islamic State, and successfully repelled attacks and prevented an invasion on their towns and villages.[42][43] ThePopular Mobilization Forces — an umbrella group that’s predominantly Shia Arabs but also includes Sunni Arab tribal fighters, Christian militias, Yazidi militias, and other non-military forces, played a big role in thewar against the Islamic State.[44] In one notable incident, groups inside the city reportedly killed five Islamic State militants and destroyed two of their vehicles.[45]
On 9 July 2017, the Iraqi Prime Minister arrived in Mosul to announce the victory over ISIL, and an official declaration of victory was proclaimed on 10 July. However, heavy clashes continued in a final pocket of ISIL resistance in the Old City, for almost another two weeks. It was estimated that removing the explosives from Mosul and repairing the city over the next five years would require $50 billion (2017 USD), while Mosul's Old City alone would cost about US$1 billion to repair.
The Battle of Mosul was concurrent with theBattle of Sirte (2016) inLibya and theRaqqa campaign (2016–17) conducted by theSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF) againstISIL's capital city and stronghold inSyria. (Full article...)
Executions following illegal/irregular/unlawful courts, in disrespect of due process and fair trial standards
