Extremists welcomed in Mosul

Mosul residents feel that Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, and his Shia-dominated Government has kept their people oppressed. Photo / AP

An elderly man is ripped from his bed in the dead of night. Blindfolded, the last thing he feels is the blade slitting his throat. A taxi driver, made to kneel at the side of the road, trembles as a gun is put to his head and the trigger pulled. In one execution, the bodies of five men have bullets in their backs.

The footage, posted online as Isis propaganda videos, reveals the cruel psychopathy of men whose humanity has been lost to the extremist cause.

Less than a week ago the jihadists seized control of Iraq's second city of Mosul. As many as 500,000 Iraqis escaped. But now, tens of thousands have decided to return.

In the Sunni-dominated city, the removal of the Iraqi Army by Isis has been interpreted as a local victory - a means of empowering Mosul residents against Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, and his Shia-dominated Government which, they feel, has kept their people oppressed.

"For seven years we lived in a prison. The people who have come now [Isis], are better than the Maliki army," Maher, 36, said.

With the rest of his family crammed into his battered car, ready to drive to Mosul, Maher described the city as he had found it the day before: "The situation is quiet and normal now in Mosul. Schools and hospitals have opened. There is no pressure from Isis. Yesterday there was a parade by them in the streets to show off the weapons that they took from the Iraqi Army. People came out to watch; they feel safe."

Video footage from inside the city shows masked gunmen acting as traffic police, calmly waving cars through at a crossroads. Jihadists are shown studiously repairing broken electricity lines.

One resident, who spoke from her home inside the city, said: "The armed men organise even the municipal services."

It is unclear how long the honeymoon between the jihadists and the people of Mosul can last. The occupation of Mosul repeats patterns already established in Syria, where initially the population welcomed the jihadists as a force for moral good. But then, the strict regulations start to grate and build rejection.