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Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, fighting alongside Iraqi forces, take part in a military operation against the Islamic State in the Makhoul mountains, north of Baiji, on Oct. 17, 2015. After recapturing parts of Baiji and the huge nearby refinery complex from the Islamic State group, security and allied paramilitary forces thrust further northward up the main highway leading to Mosul.(Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)
DOHUK, Iraq<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— Journalists are beaten or executed as spies. Children routinely witness executions and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>no longer go to school. A portion of government workers' salaries are seized.
That is what life is like living under the brutal rule of the Islamic State in Mosul since the extremist group captured Iraq's second largest city in 2014,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to residents lucky enough to escape to this Kurdish enclave about<span style="color: Red;">*</span>45 miles to the north.
Yousuf Saba, 41, a former journalist with local news channel Sama al-Mosul,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said he fled for his life in recent weeks<span style="color: Red;">*</span>after the militant<span style="color: Red;">*</span>group began rounding up journalists suspected of leaking negative information about the Islamic State.
“Anyone who was part of the journalist union in Mosul was taken,” Saba said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“They accused them of spying and threatened to kill their families. Some of my friends ... were interrogated and beaten, even though they had no proof against them.”
In early September, the militants<span style="color: Red;">*</span>executed 15<span style="color: Red;">*</span>local journalists as suspected<span style="color: Red;">*</span>spies in front of a large crowd in the center of Mosul and forced children to watch, said Saba, who witnessed the killings.
Two weeks after he fled the city, the Islamic State killed his younger brother as an "example for others who were trying to escape," he said. "If more people leave, they will lose<span style="color: Red;">*</span>their<span style="color: Red;">*</span>credibility in front of the world."
Mohamma Bakour, 32, a schoolteacher who escaped in September, said the militants initially shut down all the schools. Now, he said, they have revised the courses to be consistent with their radical view of Islam.
“Books that discuss evolution are banned, and (many) science labs in schools have been burned," Bakour<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said. "'Only God created the world, and you don’t need experiments to tell them<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the world exists.'<span style="color: Red;">*</span>That’s their philosophy.”
Bakour said many children have been traumatized by the regime's brutality.
“When they cut a throat in front of the children, some children get psychologically affected and other children accept it as normal," he said. "In more than one year, the Islamic State has created a society where it’s normal for children to watch their elders being murdered by them.”
Most children don’t go to school<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and could end up joining the militants, Bakour said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Child labor is common. Many children “sell water and snacks on the streets to make $5 a day<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to support their families. But if they get recruited by (the Islamic State), they make much more money, and many families need that," he said.
“They will have no future to build a civil society. It will be a chaos," he added.
More residents trapped in Mosul have wanted to get out after Iraq's central government in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Baghdad cut off government workers' salaries because the Islamic State was seizing 20% to 30% of people's pay to finance its<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rule.
One 22-year-old man who recently escaped said the militants seized $4<span style="color: Red;">*</span>million worth of production equipment from his family's food-packing factories. He asked to be identified only by his first name, Aws, because his family is still trapped in Mosul, and he fears their lives are in danger.
Aws said he and his younger brothers were forced to run errands for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. Others work voluntarily for the group because private business has dried up. Few people shop<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at malls anymore, but the Islamic State<span style="color: Red;">*</span>still collects<span style="color: Red;">*</span>taxes from the stores and other shop owners,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he said.
Aws said the Islamic State has become an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>efficient, if brutal, bureaucracy in the past year. And government workers<span style="color: Red;">*</span>whose salaries have been cut off by Baghdad<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are so desperate that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>they<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are willing to work for the Islamic State for little money.
A Mosul resident lies next to his wheelchair stacked with some of his belongings in the courtyard of a mosque outside the city of Kirkuk, where over 500 senior pilgrims are stuck after returning from the hajj. The Iraqi government permitted only those above age 60 to exit militant territory, escorting them by bus to Baghdad, where they then flew to Mecca. But nearly two months later, the Mosuli hajjaj, as they are known in Arabic, are desperately trying to get home.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Bram Janssen, AP)
Not everyone feels terrorized in Mosul. Those who express satisfaction with the Islamic State tend to be Sunni Muslims, the same sect as the militants in a country where the majority of residents and virtually all top government officials in Baghdad are Shiites.
“Everything is better under the Islamic State," said Abdullah Rehman, 66, a Sunni.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>His three sons work for the city<span style="color: Red;">*</span>department responsible for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>basic services, such as cleaning streets, sewage, trash collection and electricity. “There is a proper system of governance, and life is simple,” he said.
Rehman is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>one of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>600 senior citizens<span style="color: Red;">*</span>allowed by the Islamic State<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to travel for hajj —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the sacred annual pilgrimage for Muslims to Mecca. Now, he<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and many others are stuck in Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Local authorities are blocking their travel back to Mosul out of concern for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>their safety,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kirkuk police chief Sarhad Qadir<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said. “We can’t take responsibility for these people,” he said.
Still, Rehman remains eager to make it back<span style="color: Red;">*</span>home.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“There is no corruption in the society. If someone does ill, they get punished," he said. "If they steal, their hands will be chopped. If they spy, they are (considered) enemies and they will be killed. This system allows people to be good, and that is what Islam<span style="color: Red;">*</span>teaches."
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