The Iraqi War, 2017 - Agence VU'

The Iraqi War, 2017

Hiên Lâm Duc

In 2017, the war in Iraq is still ragging. The Iraqi army, supported by the international coalition, intensifies its strikes to regain control of the last strongholds still detained by the Islamic State. A struggle of an incredible violence that leaves behind lands fragmented and torn apart by bombardments, cities in ruins, thousands of victims lying under the rubbles, a population traumatized and constrained to exile, and intercommunity tensions increasing.

From 2016 to 2017, Lâm Duc Hiên has been a real witness to the suffering of the Iraqi people. From the violence of the war against Daesh, to the escape of civilians from Hawija, from the mortuary spectacle of Mosul’s liberation, to the humanitarian intervention in refugees camps of Qayyarah : he takes us back to the realities of this Iraqi chaos.

War against Daesh

2016-2017 – The struggle of the Iraqi army, supported by the forces of the international coalition, intensifies to regain control of the last areas still under the control of the Islamic state. Lâm Duc Hiên as a true witness of the Iraqi chaos, was on the spot to bear witness to the violence of the war, until the release of the main strongholds of Daesh.

Released on August 25^th 2016, Qayyarah city was buried under thick layers of black smoke after EI’s fighters set fire to the thirteen wells of the region before fleeing.

Qaraqosh, the great Christian city of Northern Iraq, became ghostly after its liberation in October 2016 during the Mosul Battle.

Hammam Al-Alil, released in November 2016, dug out on its lands the mass grave where lay the bodies of jihadist fighters.

Mosul was liberated in July 2017 after being the scene of a long battle, in the course of which the city saw its structures falling into ruins, its inhabitants scattered under sandstorms or struggling for survive at the Golden Unit Clinic located in the battle line.

In Mosul, civilians are arising from ruins

On July 9th, 2017, the Iraqi state took back the city of Mosul, which was under the control of the Islamic state, changing by this way, the face of the war after five months of chaos. A victory achieved thanks to the mobilization of the Iraqi, Kurdish peshmergas soldiers and catholic militias, without forgetting the air strikes, artillery fires and special forces of the international coalition. A victory that comes with a heavy cost. Thousands of victims lay under the rubble, districts of the west of Mosul have been laminated, the old city ruined, its houses collapsed and its streets full of rubble.

Lâm Duc Hiên was in the district of Siraj Khana. On spot, civilians subsist in the middle of the ruins and try to pass on Iraqi army side under the bomb shots. The army continues to control and proceed on arrests All the suspects have to prove a white handed: their hands should not have any smell of powder at the risk of proving an affiliation to the Islamic state.

The escape of civilians from Daesh

On October 4th, 2017, the city of Hawija, one of the last sanctuaries of the Islamic state in Northern Iraq, was taken back from the terrorists’ hands after have been the theater of an assault from Iraqi government forces, helped by American commandos, Shiites and Peshmergas Kurds’ fighters. The fight only lasted two weeks.

Hawija victory now places Iraqi soldiers at the edge of Kirkuk, one of the areas disputed between the Kurdistan autonomous region and the power of Bagdad. Under the threat of renewed fighting and fear of persecution by the Shiite militias of Hashd al-Shaabi, the Sunni inhabitants of the region are fleeing towards the Kurd autonomous region, sometimes walking for days under the heat of desert to find rescue in the refugee camps. But while some of them are suspected of having been affiliated with the EI, they all have to face the controls and the mistrust of Peshmergas. Lâm Duc Hiên went to follow the escape of civilians.

Refugees of Qayyarah’s camps

After the Iraqi forces took back the control of Mosul, the city of Qayyarah, 70 kilometers south of the former Islamic State stronghold, became the epicenter of the refugees. Iraqi’s intern displaced, young child, widows and wives of EI’s combatants, there are thousands of hundreds of refugees mingle in the middle of poor settlements of the six camps set up in the area.

From the camp of Jeddah to the one of Hammam Al-Alil, Lâm Duc Hiên went on the spot in November alongside members of the Norwegian Council Refugees (NRC), which intervene to help and register refugees. Some of them are worried about their future, without news of their relatives, and sometimes, without any proof of their identity.