Omar Mohammed blogged about the ISIS occupation of Mosul under the pseudonym Mosul Eye, documenting daily life in the city through conversations with residents. His new book, "Mosul Eye: A Scholar's Clandestine War against ISIS," recounts how he coordinated the evacuation of hundreds of people during the 2016-2017 battle to retake the city from the extremist group. He was able to save an archaeologist named Nadeem and his family without revealing his identity at the time.
Mohammed, a historian, fled Mosul to Paris in 2016 and tracked the conflict through satellite imagery and communications with civilians still in the city. He began providing coordinates and tactical information to US Central Command and Iraqi security forces, after years of refusing to share his information with intelligence agencies. His knowledge of Mosul's side streets allowed him to direct rescuers through the city during the battle.
The book includes a letter from Pope Francis and a foreword by David Petraeus, who led US forces in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Mohammed told The National that Mosul's social fabric, once characterized by communities of different faiths coexisting for centuries, was eroded by decades of sectarianism and the ISIS occupation. "There are new societies, a new system of living and meaning," he said of the city that emerged after 2017.
ISIS took control of Mosul in June 2014 after Iraqi security forces withdrew almost without resistance. After four weeks of relative quiet, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared at Al Nuri Mosque to announce the city's constitution, followed by sectarian massacres of Yazidis and Shabaks, and the expulsion of Christians. The UN has described the August 2014 killings of Yazidis as genocide.
ISIS initially offered Mosul's Christians the option to pay jizya, a historical tax on non-Muslim communities in Islamic societies that would allow them to practice their religion. Christians in the Syrian city of Raqqa accepted this arrangement, but Mohammed writes that Mosul's Christians refused and were told to leave, their properties seized. Many ISIS members in Mosul were former officers of Saddam Hussein's army and intelligence services, bringing hierarchical command structures and bureaucratic methods to the occupation.
