Al-Monitor witnessed Iraqi soldiers on June 1 randomly firing shots in the air in the streets of Mosul, and stopping and harassing the local population.
The inhabitants of Mosul see the Iraqi army as a Shiite occupation army from Baghdad, and some civilians welcomed the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) when they entered Mosul and removed all Iraqi army checkpoints.
“The Iraqi army oppressed the people, they stole their money,” said Ali Ahmed, a driver, who was shot while fleeing Mosul.
According to Ahmed, the local population in Mosul welcomed ISIS. “The people in Mosul do not like Daash (militants belonging to ISIS), or Maliki, but they now feel better under Daash, and water and electricity returned.”
Ahmed al-Ghadra, 74, a former resident of Mosul, told Al-Monitor the army mistreated him. “The Arab Iraqi people want Maliki to go to prison. He is a traitor. Fourteen Daash members come, and the whole Iraqi army flees. The people of Mosul do not want the Iraqi army in Mosul. I’m an old man, and they stopped me for one hour at a checkpoint, using bad language.”
More witnesses confirm that ISIS treated the civilian population well, and told them that they would only punish those who work with Maliki. Basma Mohammed told Al-Monitor that the situation was horrible in Mosul. “We had no water, no food in Mosul, but now everything is back. They [ISIS] told the people to go back to Mosul.”