The smell of death still fills Mosul
Bodies of Islamic State terrorists and their victims strewn among the rubble a year after liberation fight
MOSUL, Iraq – Nearly a year after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared this war-devastated city liberated from the Islamic State, a putrid odor still fills the air from thousands of corpses left in the rubble.
The bodies of civilians and Islamic State militants can be found throughout Mosul, once Iraq’s second-largest city, abandoned in bombed-out buildings, tossed in roadside rubbish heaps or discarded in and around the Tigris River.
“The sight and smell of these corpses is a constant reminder of our darkest days,” said Ayoub Thanoun, 26, a pharmacy assistant who helps neighbors clear debris. “A large number of bodies are scattered in the houses, gardens, squares and even in some of our mosques.”
“Often the bodies of ISIS fighters are just dumped in place. And when we come to lift and remove them, we find they’re still strapped to explosive vests or there are bombs hidden in the piles of corpses.” Omar Mohammed Mosul resident
Ahead of parliamentary elections May 12, candidates have planted campaign banners atop piles of brick and stones, most of them from ancient buildings that were destroyed.
“The politicians are holding electioneering feasts on top of the bodies,” said Shihab Ahmed, 28, who lives in the Bab Lagash district, where most working-age males were tombstone engravers before the Islamic State invaded the city in June 2014.
About 100,000 people lived in Mosul’s 1-square-mile Old City before the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, occupied the neighborhood. The United Nations estimated that more than 90% of the district was demolished.
“I’ve spent my whole life in the Old City. And while there are many historic buildings officials need to preserve and protect, the government should do something to help the volunteers who have been working so hard to clear the corpses out of this neighborhood,” Ahmed said.
The task is dangerous. “Often the bodies of ISIS fighters are just dumped in a place. And when we come to lift and remove them, we find they’re still strapped to explosive vests or there are bombs hidden in the piles of corpses,” said Omar Mohammed, 30, an Old City resident.
“We are all vexed with how to deal with the bodies,” said Ma’an Al Jammal, 26, a physician at Nineveh Medical College in Mosul. “The residents themselves are applying some sort of quarantine, but some have been injured from hidden explosives.”
The decomposing bodies present health problems. The World Health Organization determined that people who live downstream from the city are at risk of gastroenteritis from water that was exposed to the bodies.
“We are lucky that the main supply of Mosul’s drinking water from the Tigris is located far north of the city,” Al Jammal said.
The United Nations held a workshop in March to come up with a plan to remove about 8 million tons of “conflict debris.”
The volume of rubble is equivalent to three piles the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, according to the United Nations.
“Unplanned disposal of debris can create serious health and environmental risks and burdensome economic liabilities in the future,” said Hassan Partow, a U.N. environment program manager.
Sroor Al-Hosayni, 23, a nurse in Mosul, isn’t waiting for the government to remove the bodies left on the ground and inside demolished homes in her neighborhood. Al-Hosayni led her team of 30 volunteers to pull out the dead from the dirt and debris and place the bodies in white plastic sacks.
“We gathered 52 bodies here, and then the municipality takes them to be dumped,” Al-Hosayni said by phone April 19 after spending the day retrieving the dead from a district that saw some of the fiercest battles between government troops and ISIS militants.
Al-Hosayni’s mission began after her sister, Nibras, 14, was killed in last year’s fighting. Her father died of a heart attack shortly after an airstrike.
“I promised the security forces to work for them as a nurse if they would help me bury my sister,” said Al-Hosayni, who trains others in the safe removal of bodies.
The training includes the use of protective gear, and how to treat scorpion stings, a common hazard.
“The areas smell of death. It’s awful, but we have gotten used to it,” AlHosayni said. She said city officials suggested letting stray dogs eat the bodies. “There are lots of rats and cats, but no dogs. I told them there were not enough dogs to eat the corpses. There are thousands of bodies.”
The prime minister said the civilian death toll in Mosul was almost 1,300. That number has been challenged by independent monitoring groups and the Associated Press, which estimated in December that as many as 11,000 civilians died from October 2016 through July 2017.
Al-Hosayni and her volunteers have removed 860 bodies.
“In many ways, I’m doing this work in memory of my sister and my father,” she said. “Dad taught me that actively caring for others is the best answer to the atrocities of the Islamic State.”