This story dates back to the (20th of June 2017)
In 2014 ISIS got into the city of Mosul and they took down three major cities in Iraq ,many lives have changed some lost theirs others had to leave their homes ,After the three long years of war ISIS was kicked out and the city of Mosul was liberated , (24th of June 2017) was the last time I was in Mosul and it was the night of Eid Al-iftar the first eid after liberation ,The PMF where controlling north east side of Mosul city , I went their on a visit and met with Abdullah Aljoubori and his family when they arrived their home town Badush ,Abdullah used to be the imam of Badush Mosque but after the start of the war he had to escape with his family to save them , Abdullah didn’t speak until he saw the mosque and when he saw it he started crying and running towards the doors, it felt like he found a lost part of his soul in the place , He kissed the mosque doors and said “now I came back to live” a moment that is was beyond words to describe.
People kept moving back into Badush almost all the time I spent their and they stayed positive and happy. stores reopened and hours and parents were taking their children to buy them new clothes for Eid , children of Mosul were really fast coping with going back home , they started going to the old jobs and raising the cattle and their football games and even swimming in the river.
At the same time the PMF troops were going on patrols we witnessed a lot of distraction and fear and finding some of what the extremest militia has left before they left , they were living in a system that they built and implying it to people that they basically imprisoned their documents had the logo on the top and officials signatures.
On the other side we tried to have some fun after the long battles so went swimming in the Euphrates river where the water was called and the people were so happy about it. Some brought the kid’s for a little swim and there is something about people being happy when a war has ended you can see the smiles and laughs are coming from the heart it was an unforgettable moment.
