美国国家公共电台 NPR As Assault On Mosul Looms, Resistance Grows — And ISIS Grows More Brutal

As Assault On Mosul Looms 1, Resistance Grows — And ISIS Grows More Brutal 2 

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ISIS has held the Iraqi city of Mosul for more than two years. Now Iraqi forces are gathered in the tens of thousands to try to take it back. U.S. troops will be close to the battlefield and carry out air strikes. NPR's Alice Fordham met with people who recently fled Mosul who say the militants 4 are dug in but face new resistance in the city. And a warning, this report includes graphic 5 descriptions of violence.

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE 6: In an overcrowded camp for displaced people in northern Iraq, I meet a woman sitting on the ground. She has a blue headscarf and frightened green eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Through interpreter) I came 10 days ago.

FORDHAM: She fled Mosul, and she's still so terrified of ISIS, she won't give her name. She says the extremists set up checkpoints to stop people leaving, but she paid a smuggler 7 to get her out because she believes Iraq's offensive to take the city back is coming soon. She says ISIS has put up defenses.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Through interpreter) Yes, they put up barricades 8, so then we were afraid that the battle would begin.

FORDHAM: Iraqi officials say an assault could begin any time.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Through interpreter) The families in Mosul, if they had a way to leave, of course they would take it. They would run away from the shelling. But I don't know if they can.

FORDHAM: She says the militants running the city have become increasingly paranoid in recent months, banning televisions and conducting house searches for sim cards and cellphones. Another woman comes over to me, tall and energetic, eager to tell her story. She, too, says she thinks ISIS feels threatened.

UM YAHYA: (Through interpreter) They became more extreme with us. They told us that because we don't practice the Islamic religion they're losing their battles.

FORDHAM: She wouldn't give her name either, just a nickname, Um Yahya. She fled just three days ago. She's a nurse and says ISIS' religious police have been using the hospital where she works as a headquarters. She believes they do it because the U.S.-led coalition 9 won't strike a hospital. Life under ISIS was always brutal, but she says the militants have got worse.

UM YAHYA: (Through interpreter) My son told me that he saw them with scissors in the market. If anyone mentions liberation, they cut out their tongue.

FORDHAM: That was this week. Um Yahya says she herself saw three men with their mouths sewn shut as punishment for talking about the coming offensive. But in private, her family did talk about it, anticipated it.

UM YAHYA: (Through interpreter) The young men are ready. They're ready. My son and his friends, they say that when the army comes they will help ISIS.

FORDHAM: She says the men of Mosul were beaten in front of their women and humiliated 10, and they will fight back when they get the chance. And some are doing it already. Graffiti, like ISIS are dogs, appeared on the walls, and a group known as the resistance assassinated 11 ISIS leaders.

UM YAHYA: (Through interpreter) Yes, the resistance killed them, and they wrote M on their doors.

FORDHAM: The M is for muqawama, the Arabic for resistance. Security officials tell NPR they hope these groups will rise up against ISIS when the offensive begins. Um Yahya also says she doesn't see senior ISIS figures on the street anymore. And a taxi driver friend says he drove some of them to the Syrian border. I ask if she thinks it will be a hard fight for the Iraqi security forces to take the city back.

UM YAHYA: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: "So easy," she says, "so easy." But previous attempts to take towns from ISIS have taken months. And they're expected to have some supporters in Mosul, a city they've held for two years. Um Yahya wants to go home, but it could be months before she can. Alice Fordham, NPR News, Erbil, northern Iraq.