Race against time to root out Iraq’s jihadi sleepers
The Telegraph travels with security service officers in east Mosul as they raid homes in the hunt for Isil sympathisers
A CONVOY of unmarked black pick-up trucks speeds furiously through the streets of east Mosul, racing past hulks of bombed-out buildings and dodging craters left by mortars.
The Iraqi National Security Service team has received intelligence on suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) sleeper cell members and needs to move fast.
As troops battle Isil fighters in the west of the city, security agencies in the recently liberated eastern side are waging a different kind of campaign against the group that will determine Mosul’s longer-term future.
Sitting in the back seat of the lead vehicle is a man wearing civilian clothes and a balaclava. As we drive through the southeastern Intisar neighbourhood he points out of the window to a house behind an iron gate, a gesture which causes the driver to brake abruptly.
The masked man, Major Saad Kamal tells The Sunday Telegraph, is an informant. “The suspect in this house is his neighbour so we have to make sure his face is covered and they can’t identify him,” he says.
Within seconds the officers have jumped from the trucks and have the building surrounded.
Snipers quickly train their guns on the upstairs windows. A child skips out on to the street just at the wrong moment and the major puts a finger to his lips and ushers her back indoors.
When all 15 of the team are in place, he gives the nod and they storm the front door.
Female family members scream and wail as the officers grab the youngest of the men by the collar. “He is not with Daesh [the Arabic name for Isil], why have you come here? Please let him go,” they plead as he is led away.
They examine him for any explosives in the light of the midday sun. Cleanly-shaven and of slight build, he looks barely out of his teens.
He is handcuffed and thrown in the back of the truck, before the team speeds off to the next address on the list.
This time there is no screaming or shouts of protestation. The young man they haul out is quietly resigned.
We then drive a few minutes down the road for the third and final raid.
The officers interrupt a family lunch and, without a word, a father and two sons are dragged from the kitchen and out through the porch.
They do not resist, but repeatedly cry “we are innocent, we are innocent”. As it quickly turns out, one of them is. The informant beckons the major over and whispers in his ear. One of the younger men is then let go.
They have the wrong brother, he tells them. The one they want is not home. “He didn’t do bayah [the pledge of allegiance to Isil] like the others,” the informant says.
By now, there are four men squatting in the back of the truck. All of them handcuffed behind their backs Suspects are tied up and blindfolded at the Iraqi National Security Service base near Mosul. Left, a displaced family flee their home as Iraqi forces battle with Isil militants in western Mosul