NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Radio station offers solace in Mosul

By William Booth and Aaso Ameen Shwan
Washington Post·
18 Nov, 2016 04:00 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Iraqi troops drive through the dust as they enter Mosul yesterday as they battle to take the city from Isis. Picture / AP

Iraqi troops drive through the dust as they enter Mosul yesterday as they battle to take the city from Isis. Picture / AP

The listeners who call in to Radio Alghad are typical of talk radio audiences around the world. It's complain, complain. Except the callers to Radio Tomorrow are in the Isis-controlled city of Mosul, and they don't want to yak about traffic or sports.

They want to unload on suicide bombers and errant airstrikes, on the lack of food and medicine. They have questions about when to wave white flags and what to do with bodies in the rubble.

"Shrapnel hit the tanks on the rooftop," a caller named Hasan told FM-95.5 the other day. "We have lost all water we have saved."

On calls made from the frontlines in Mosul, listeners to Radio Alghad can hear mortar rounds falling as the Government battles to retake the city. They can hear windows rattle, bursts of gunfire, children crying in a backroom.

"There is a difference between hearing about the crimes and seeing them with your eyes," another caller told one of the station's hosts.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She begged Iraqi forces to hurry to recapture the city. Many of her neighbours still support the Isis (Islamic State), she said. "So it's hard to tell who is a friend and who is an enemy."

The callers often speak in rushed whispers.

A cellphone, even a SIM card hidden in a pocket or purse, can be a death sentence in Mosul, where Isis militants have ordered "collaborators and spies" to be summarily executed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The station's founder is a 30-something tech entrepreneur who calls himself "Mohammad of Mosul" in interviews because he does not want to be targeted by the Isis or its supporters. He also insists on keeping the location of his station and most of the names of its hosts secret. He is concerned about car bombs. He will allow a reporter only to say the operation is in the Kurdish area of Iraq.

On a recent evening, during one of four call-in shows hosted each day, a dozen people from Mosul and the surrounding towns and villages telephoned the station and went live on-air.

Callers are told to use an alias. So instead of "Sleepless in Seattle", the callers identify themselves as with monikers like "Tear of an Oppressed", "Prisoner of Memories" and others such as "Mother of Ali" or "Son of Mosul". The guests are also warned not to mention their exact location, both for their own protection and to foil intelligence-gathering by Isis militants, who monitor the radio station.

The first call of the evening went like this:

Discover more

World

Evidence of Isis torture found in grave

09 Nov 04:00 PM
World

With Trump in charge, 'US in uncharted territory'

09 Nov 10:01 PM
World

Wood tanks weapons of distraction

18 Nov 04:00 PM
Technology

VR helping dementia patients

18 Nov 04:00 PM

Caller: As-salamu alaykum!

Host: Peace to you, Son of Mosul! Where are you calling from?

Caller: From the left side [meaning the east side of the Tigris River in Mosul], from the liberated areas.

Host: Inshallah, the whole of Mosul gets liberated, we want to hear soon that Mosul has completely been liberated.

Caller: It will be liberated by the help of God. What is left for Daesh [the Arabic acronym used instead of Isis]? Only to hide behind women? They protect themselves by women!

Host: Inshallah, God will give revenge for you, Son of Mosul, and for all the oppressed people in Mosul. Go ahead, tell me about the situation on the left side.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Caller: I only want to say one thing, do you know what? In Hay Al-Samah the people are still under the destroyed houses, the houses have collapsed on top of them ...

Radio Alghad went on the air in Marchlast year. Mohammad said he decided Mosul needed an alternative radio station after watching how Isis operated.

"Their social media skills are high. Their psychologists are impressive," he said.

"They get a lot of hits."

Isis' videos - such as the infamous "Clash of Swords" series - instilled fear among Iraqi defenders and diminished their will to fight.

In 2014, Isis took Mosul, then a city of about 2 million, in a couple of days as the Iraqi security forces retreated.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Then I realised this is a media war," the Alghad director said.

Isis has its own radio station operating in Mosul, Radio al-Bayan 92.5 FM.

"They use their transmitters to jam us - and we now use our transmitters to jam them," Mohammad said. "We're both on each other's frequencies all the time."

In the frequency wars, the anti-Isis station now operates seven transmitters.

Before the Government's offensive to recapture Mosul began early last month, hot topics on the call-in shows were Isis' bans on smoking, cellphones and satellite dishes. Men complained about being forced to grow beards, and the women, about full-face veils.

They also complained about taxes, arrests and street executions.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Now Radio Alghad includes public-service messages, warning listeners to shelter inside interior rooms during bombardment and to open windows to relieve the pressure so the glass doesn't implode.

On a normal day, about 80 callers go live on-air, most of them from Mosul.

In recent days, many callers have said they are being pounded both by Isis mortars and shelling from Iraqi forces. They are pleading for the Iraqi army to be careful.

A caller, "Mother of Ali" said: "Honestly, we can't stand the bombings anymore, but we have no choice but to thank God and be more patient."

Another caller complained that "Daesh launches one or two rockets, but the Iraqi army bombing is very intense, the area is full of civilian families and they get hurt, so through your station I would like to ask them to decrease the bombings and to be more accurate".

The host thanks his callers - but when they begin to criticise the Iraqi army more than tIsis, he brings the conversation to a polite close.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

On occasion, Radio Alghad has allowed suspected Isis supporters to speak on-air. They complain of distortions and lies.

Mohammad, the station director, recalled one conversation with an Isis fan who said, "The people can leave Mosul at any time," and the host replied, "Okay, let them go."

"If you live in Mosul, you know this is not true. You know if the gates to the city were open for an hour, Mosul would be empty."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Congestion toll cuts traffic delays and gridlock, report says

18 Jun 10:03 PM
live
World

NZ embassy staff evacuated from Tehran, Trump says US 'may' join Israeli strikes

18 Jun 09:39 PM
World

HIV advance: Twice-yearly shot to prevent infection

18 Jun 09:30 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Congestion toll cuts traffic delays and gridlock, report says

Congestion toll cuts traffic delays and gridlock, report says

18 Jun 10:03 PM

'By every possible standard, congestion pricing is a success.'

NZ embassy staff evacuated from Tehran, Trump says US 'may' join Israeli strikes
live

NZ embassy staff evacuated from Tehran, Trump says US 'may' join Israeli strikes

18 Jun 09:39 PM
HIV advance: Twice-yearly shot to prevent infection

HIV advance: Twice-yearly shot to prevent infection

18 Jun 09:30 PM
US Supreme Court upholds ban on gender-affirming care for minors

US Supreme Court upholds ban on gender-affirming care for minors

18 Jun 09:02 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP