Villages around the Mosul Dam remain desolate, devastated by terrorists

D. Morrow
25 September 2014

Mosul Dam

In the quiet of the empty “Mosul Dam Tourist Village,” there is a single Iraqi Sunni family living. They came back only a day after Da’esh militants were ousted from the area, but now live alone in what feels like a ghost town. 

Though originally from Mosul, the head of the family was once the village’s mayor. He explained how his family fled the day Da’esh arrived, fearing what might be about to happen to them. They made it to Mosul safely, after witnessing members of the jihadist militia tear through homes, drink, and litter through the small neighborhood, which sits between the power station and the dam itself. 

The family waited for a month in Mosul, but realized it was no safer there. They made their way back shortly after peshmerga retook the dam on September 6 and 7. They now live in the eerie silence that marks the town. Down the neighborhood’s roads (named ‘Duhok’ and ‘Samarra’ after other Iraqi cities) the houses are shuttered. Graffiti marks one that declares the peshmerga’s victory. In another spot, the ground is razed from the fighting that took place here. A lonely movie theatre stands empty on the edge of the residential area, the doors closed.

Peshmerga fought Da’esh hand-to-hand in these houses before ousting them from the area a few weeks ago. The signs of the battle have been mostly cleared now, aside from scorch marks and one bombed-out washing machine, but the family we meet is the only one that has returned. This little village is home for good now that the Mosul road has been closed. It’s unclear what they do, or can do, or will do, so long as this place remains nothing more than peshmerga outpost. The three hundred engineers who are required to run the dam stay in a neighborhood around the hill, but this Sunni family feels more comfortable in their old home. Of their three children, two are of school age, but will not be attending classes this semester. There isn’t anyone to teach them. 

As we spoke in their living room, a White House press conference was happening on the television. In it, President Obama pledged to disperse and destroy the group calling themselves the Islamic State. Here at the very edge of the fight, this family’s stake in that promise is greater than ever.