The Religion of Peace

"One doctor we spoke to told us that infants as  young as one week old, children and mothers were emerging wounded and covered in dust and soil, some were malnourished."
Hamida Ramadhani, UNICEF deputy representative, Iraq

Amina, thought to be about three, was pulled from the rubble in Mosul after being trapped for days. The little girl is believed to be the daughter of ISIL fighters from Chechnya who died in battle.© Carol Guzy via ZUMA Wire

"Damn them. They killed our families, why should they get to live?"
"Mosul will never be the same again. There's nothing to be optimistic about."
Walid Khalid, 28, Mosul, Iraq

"We had been two days without water. One fighter said you can have water but in exchange I will kill one of your children."
"Another fighter stood by a running hose and said: 'This water is for the brothers only'."
Vehyeh Zekeria, liberated Mosul, Iraq

"The best way is to build a camp outside the city and they [Islamic State families] can all live there together. Their ideology is like a caner and we don't want it infecting us."
"People welcomed Daesh (ISIL) because they suffered so much before when the army was here."
"Right now, because of what they saw under Daesh, the people of Mosul are very happy to see the army again. But if the army goes back to hurting people that could change."
Samir Ahmed Sofi, Sunni Iraqi, liberated Mosul

Sunni Iraqis, after the downfall of Sunni Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein found themselves under the majority Shiite Iraqi government that took power in the same situation that the Shiite were in, beleaguered and discriminated against by the minority Sunni Iraqi government. The dissolution of the Sunni control of Baghdad and the dismissal of all Sunni members of Saddam's military created the initial resurgence of deadly reaction between the sects as each, despite the presence of international troops led by the U.S., began slaughtering one another.

In the failure of the government set up by the U.S. administration to reflect the interests of Iraqi Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, when the majority Shiites wrenched authority to itself  reflecting its majority status, a viral undercurrent of lethal discontent roiled Iraqi Sunnis leading to a gradual emergence of militias aligning themselves with foreign terrorist groups, then morphing as a new jihadi movement under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In Syria, as in Iraq, ISIL militias ruthlessly embarked on a bloody campaign and swiftly gained a reputation as militarily unbeatable and cruelly murderous, gaining territory as they swept the geography of both countries, claiming for themselves a huge swath of both that they called their Islamic Caliphate. Finally, the Kurdish Peshmerga, defending Kurdistan from ISIL even as the Iraqi military abandoned the second largest city in Iraq to ISIL, led the country to vanquish the jihadis in battle.

The sun sets behind destroyed buildings in the west side of Mosul, Iraq. The nine-month fight to defeat ISIL in Mosul ended in a crescendo of bombardment that damaged or destroyed a third of its historic Old City in just three weeks. AP Photo/Felipe Dana/File

The greater Sunni population in Mosul had at first welcomed the presence of Sunni-led ISIL, but soon realized how devoid of humanity their new overseers were. Now those remaining in Mosul view what remains of their once-proud city, and recount their misery living under the Islamist fist of the Islamic State. While Mosul was being slowly liberated, a central core in the Old City continued to be held by ISIL jihadis many of them foreign fighters dedicated to the Daesh mission.

With them, their families, wives and children, since Mosul became an ISIL centre, its headquarters in Iraq just as Rakka was in Syria. The United States has been giving air cover to the Iraqi military as it entered Mosul along with Iranian Shia militias, as viciously brutal in their hatred as the Islamic State. The Kurds, whose fighting spirit and resilience has been responsible for ISIL defeats, were ordered to remain outside Mosul, so the full glory of the recapture of the city would remain with the Iraqi military which had turned tail at the entry of ISIL, leaving their U.S.-sourced arms and vehicles as gifts to ISIL.

In the bombing of Mosul's Old City to dislodge the Islamic State fighters, buildings are destroyed with their inhabitants within. Rescue missions have been discovering in the ruins of those buildings dozens of children, from infants and newborns upward -- the children of ISIL fighters dedicating themselves to martyrdom in suicide attacks or killed by Iraqi forces and Shiite militias in an orgy of vengeance.

A little girl of three, rescued after several days trapped in the remains of a shattered building, asked where her parents were, responded that they were "shaheeds". Another young boy was eating raw meat from the ground in a state of starvation. Needless to say, the only 'raw meat from the ground' that would be present would represent the remains of people killed by the bombing littering the ruins.

UNICEF has announced an increased number of unaccompanied children at their medical facilities, some of them babies found alone in the debris of the ruined streets, brought in by rescuers. The business of retributive killings and the desire to exact revenge through collective punishment targeting those residents of the city thought to have supported the Islamic State presence, is most certainly underway.

Those who suffered under ISIL rule share their stories of family members killed, of destroyed homes and deprivation. Burnishing their motivation to strike out against whatever is left of the Islamic State authority that made such a misery of their lives.