Mosul civilian: IS charged me for smoking cigarette

MOSUL, Iraq (Kurdistan24) – Islamic State (IS) militants wanted to lash me for smoking a cigarette, but then robbed whatever I had instead, said a Mosul civilian on Wednesday.

While Kurdistan24 was streaming live in the newly liberated neighborhood of al-Quds in Mosul, a Kurdish civilian explained the difficult living conditions under IS in the area.

“Da’esh came to my house and wanted to punish me for smoking cigarettes even though they didn’t see me smoking,” Kazim Salah told Kurdistan24, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Salah stated he expected to receive 50 lashes as punishment, but the IS member frisked him and took everything he had including money.

“Life under Da’esh’s rule was very threatening,” he continued. “Some people were giving information to them [IS].”

“They were telling the insurgents which ethnic group or clan each family belonged to or what they did on a daily basis,” Salah added.

“Many people were even afraid to go outside from their houses,” he stated.

Majid Tahir, an Arab resident of the neighborhood, told Kurdistan24 about the high food prices and products in the area during IS’ rule.

“Life was very challenging. People were nervous even when they were in their homes,” Tahir said.

He also noted IS extremists were taking homes from people and turning them into weapon storages and tunnels.

“Da’esh was occupying several houses in the neighborhood and building tunnels to move freely from one area to another,” Tahir explained.

The insurgent group seized Mosul in June 2014 and shortly expanded to other areas in Iraq. Since then, IS lost most of the territory it once held and continues to shrink.

On Oct. 17, Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched the military operation to retake Mosul. Recently, Iraqi forces successfully liberated al-Quds and Karama neighborhoods from the militant group.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Additional reporting by Masoud Mohammed)