Diary from Hell
Deafening bomb strikes, constant gunfire, grabbing lunch with Iraqi troops and rotting ISIS corpses in the wrecked streets… our week in Mosul
THE Daily Mirror’s Defence Editor Chris Hughes and photographer Rowan Griffiths spent the past week reporting from the front line of the battle for Mosul, in northern Iraq.
They covered the final days of the historic fight by Iraqi forces to wipe out brutal Islamic State fighters who had ruled the city for three years.
Almost nine months earlier the two Mirrormen had reported from the start of the battle, embedded with Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi ground forces.
This time they flew in just days before Baghdad declared victory over IS and sent daily dispatches to the Mirror.
Here’s their diary of how they got to the front and reported on the fight against the most brutal terror group ever seen.
Thursday
We landed in Erbil, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, 60 miles west of Mosul and sorted out equipment, charging phones, batteries, cameras and laptops.
We took helmets and blue body armour. It is heavy and carries bullet resistant plates to protect the chest. It is in a Kevlar vest that helps stop shrapnel.
Our fixer, Nechirvan, a student in his 20s, arrived. He told us that the old city was about to fall and that we should be there the following day.
Friday
Nechirvan picked us up at 5am. At the Peshmerga checkpoint we showed press cards. Then on through 15 checkpoints run by the Iraqi Army and militia on a long route to West Mosul, crossing the river Tigris over a pontoon bridge.
Along the road there were blown-up cars and blitzed buildings. At the Iraqi Golden Division base we were escorted to al-Nuri Mosque, where fighting raged just 200 yards away. We stayed hours, interviewing troops, and met runners with 10,000 bullets, making a 200 yard dash to the front line which was going full fury with machine gun fire and airstrikes.
We heard six suicide bombs. We return to Erbil, and file copy and pictures from the car, despite a fast, bumpy ride.
Saturday
Picked up at 5am again but security was tighter and the checkpoints took longer.
At the pontoon bridge there was a huge traffic jam. Two suspicious men, stuck next to us but going the other way, glared.
A middle-aged man, sweating heavily in the back of their car, stared ahead nervously. We theorised he might be IS and was escaping. Thankfully the queue moved, we crossed the bridge and headed to Mosul’s Old City.
On the way we saw a car on top of a flattened building, revealing the force of the air strikes, and graffiti slagging off Islamic State. One read: “F**k ISIS.” In the Old City we met three western medics covered in filth, one sat on a rusty wheelchair.
Warplanes bombed IS fighters a few hundred yards away, bullets zipped past. The medics gave us a great interview and pictures. We had enough for our sister paper the Sunday Mirror so we headed to Erbil, filing on the way.
We met runners taking bullets to the front 200 yards away and heard 6 suicide bombers CHRIS HUGHES OUR REPORTER ALONGSIDE IRAQI TROOPS IN MOSUL
Sunday
Picked up at 4.30am. Journey to western Mosul took five hours. Under pressure as covering the final liberation was the point of our assignment and this was rumoured to be the day.
Checkpoints tight as there had been an attack south of Mosul, with journalists and soldiers killed.
We bypassed the dodgy area but were held up for hours as an Iraqi major said journalists were banned from Mosul. Nechirvan chivvied away at him for hours and finally persuaded him to let us through. The heat was unbearable and at the Old City the Iraqi special forces were very tense as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had arrived as the battle still raged nearby.
Troops had driven IS all the way to the Tigris and the jihadists were trying to escape. We were invited to lunch of chicken and rice and melons.
One middle-aged soldier giggled, his mouth full of chicken as he asked us: “You want to meet IS?” His mates told us he was referring to three rotting IS corpses he had killed days ago, lying in a shop over the road. We declined. After hours of waiting we made it to the front line, where we witnessed RAF air-strikes landing a few hundred yards away, smashing Islamic State’s last stand. We left as communications were down in Mosul and we were worried about filing copy.
Monday
Picked up at 11am and drove towards Mosul to interview an Iraqi who had been at the al-Nuri mosque when IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his caliphate in 2014.
Many of Yassin Samir Ahmed’s family and friends were slaughtered by IS. Security even tighter today. At the first Peshmerga checkpoint we waited an hour, sitting with an officer in his air-conditioned room, before being told we needed new paperwork.
We drove back to Erbil and took hours finding the Kurdish regional government office where the official agreed to call the checkpoint.
We drove back and were allowed through the barrier, driving through Iraqi checkpoints all the way to Mosul city, where an officious soldier refused to let us by. We interviewed Yassin over the phone and headed to Erbil.
Tuesday
Our last day so we spent our time calling Iraqi troops on the front line, aware we wouldn’t make it through the checkpoints.
One told us the astonishing story of Iraqi special forces hero Mohammed Qasim, the Lion of Mosul, who had killed six IS men by going undercover as one of them in the heat of battle. A general confirmed the story. Spent the day with Nechirvan tracking down pictures of him. Finally someone e-mailed them and we filed the story, while trying to reach Mosul a final time. We failed after a few checkpoints.
The team went for a pint in Erbil and we said goodbye to Nechirvan. One of his friends told us he had been shot at and pinned down by IS months before. He hadn’t said a word about his horrific experience.