One Year On, People Of IS-Held Mosul Still 'Cut Off From The World'

[Valin]

Under The Black Flag:

28 May 2015

 

Hung precariously on otherwise empty scaffolding above a dingy market stall in Mosul's Bab al-Tob neighborhood, the message of the Islamic State (IS) poster belies its surroundings.

 

"Mosul city is prospering under the caliphate!" it reads.

 

But for Mosul Eye, a local historian who has been secretly documenting IS's activities in Mosul since the militants overran the city almost exactly a year ago, and who shared a photo of the poster on Facebook this week, such IS propaganda is an insult.

 

"The pictures talk for their selves (sic) what kind if prosperity ISIL is spreading; the prosperity of death and destruction culture," wrote Mosul Eye, using a variant acronym for IS.

 

And with the first anniversary of IS's capture of Mosul rapidly approaching, the city of more than 1 million remains an IS stronghold, and plans to recapture it have stalled.

 

Analysts and activists warn that these delays are allowing IS to entrench its "death-and-destruction" culture in what was once known as the Pearl of the North.

 

(Snip)