Hari Srinivasan:
But first: de facto capital of the Islamic state of Raqqa, in Syria, yesterday fell into the United States supported by the United States.
Nevertheless, the largest city, which once held the militants, was Mosul in Iraq. They were overthrown from this in July after a cruel 10-month battle, as a result of which thousands were killed.
Now a new major task: the search and destruction of igil mines, traps and bombs that clog the city.
The special correspondent of Marcia Biggs reports from Iraq.
Marcia Biggs, special correspondent:
Once it was a training center for more than 6,000 students of technology, agriculture and medicine.
Today, the classrooms of the Mosul Technical Institute are burned on Earth, the laboratories turn into debris, and the books are charred and crushed. This is one of the five universities of the city destroyed by the Islamic state, and the battle to overthrow it.
Now that the battle is over, the new danger looms, the path of land mines and traps left by ISIS.
So this is a wire, and it was here that it was buried.
Christian, team leader, Global Operations Janus:
Yes, they would cut asphalt, and then put the wire and put the main charge here.
Marcia Biggs:
We spent the day with Christian, the head of the Janus Global team, the security management company and risk management hired by the US government, to collect and clean the main areas of unexploded ammunition and mines.
He is not allowed to show his face or use his surname for security reasons.
Christian:
In fact, there are two more on this road before we get to the target building that should be excavated and/or ensure security.
Marcia Biggs:
So, the first building that you must clean, should you get rid of the IEV on the road to this building?
Christian:
Yes.
Marcia Biggs:
This is a long process.
Christian:
This, but it does it interesting.
Marcia Biggs:
This year, the United States spent $ 30 million to clean the former ISIS territories throughout Northern Iraq. Within the framework of this program, Janus has already cleaned 727 buildings, deleting 3,000 IEDs, which, according to them, ISIS produced on assembly lines on an industrial scale.
But officials of the State Department and experts say that the number of unexploded ammunition in Mosul itself is unprecedented.
What is your first attack line, from the point of view of an attempt to clear Mosul?
Christian:
Our priority is rather a community, not an individual, you know, infrastructure. You have schools, energy, sewage, water so that this area can accept people back. And then, as soon as this stabilization phase ended, we can go to individual houses so that they can be safer.
Marcia Biggs:
Cleaning Mosul is a process that, according to them, can take years, even decades. Thus, Janus teaches local Iraqis to do work, sending them as a search team in the front line, and then investigate and eliminate any suspicious items themselves.
Christian:
We will not be here all the time, therefore, when we have come to leave, they will be created from us, and the mentoring that we did so that they can do it on our own.
Marcia Biggs:
How are they doing?
Christian:
They – many of them are very inclined to study. They are fast. They are smart.
Marcia Biggs:
Fauzi Al Nabi is the head of the team of the local partner of Iraq. He purified mines throughout Iraq over the past six years.
Christian:
What do you have?
Fauzi Al Nabi, team manager, Al Fahad Company:
(Through the translator) We are ready for this, because this is my job, and I like it. The Americans are here to complete our work and help us. They have more experience than we are. If we find some mines, we must stop, and they will investigate it and draw up a plan to remove it.
Marcia Biggs:
But he says that Mosul is the largest project that he saw when he saw, and we were told that this may take at least a month to just clear the campus from the mines. Only then can they begin to clean it so that students can resume classes, this is a huge task itself.
ISIS fighters closed the university back in 2014 and used it as a military base. Since the coalition forces defeated the goals of ISIS, this place of the highest level became the battlefield.
Gassan Alubaydi is the dean of the institute.
Ghassan Alubaidy, Dean, Mosula Technical Institute:
(Through the interpreter) ISIS used our university to produce mines and bombs. For this reason, this was the goal of air strikes at the beginning. They struck the institute nine times, and they also broke our seminars. Now we cannot use them.
Marcia Biggs:
The former commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, recently listed the 81st place where the bombs were dropped, but had not exploded yet.
Objects used for the manufacture of weapons were often in the list of high goals for coalition. So now these places are two times more likely to contain dangerous objects.
So, it was once a seminar for students of electrical engineering. You can still see laboratory tables here. In 2015, he suffered from an air strike. After that, university employees found instructions for making bombs among the wreckage. Probably, it was a factory of manufacturing ISIS bomb, and judging by the crater, a valuable target.
Despite the damage, Dean Alubaydi says that this fall he will conduct classes in alternative buildings until the campus is ready. He expects that registration will be in thousands, students who have lost three years of study during the fighting and do not want to lose one more.
Gassan Alubaydi:
(Through the translator) On our pages on Facebook, we found that many students publish that they were full of support to return. It was incredible for us. We could not imagine how many students wanted to start again, how they dreamed of the first day of classes when they could sit in front of teachers again and start living their lives again.
Marcia Biggs:
In the neighborhood, the University of Mosula has already begun classes. Students even volunteered to help in cleaning.
But across the River, the West Mosul was the place of ISIS of the last position and wore the main blow of the battle. This tightly packed old city, with its flattened buildings, is a problem for immersing in a mine.
Fawzi Al-Nabdi:
(Through the interpreter) Most of the houses here were full of mines. And right here, before us, a man with two children returned to his house, and when he opened the door, the bomb killed him and his children.
Marcia Biggs:
Ahmed Yunes escaped in early July, only with clothes on his back. Residents were practically forbidden to return to their area on the outskirts of the old city, but Ahmed said that he received a special permission to get some personal belongings.
Ahmed Yunes:
(Through the translator) We came on our own. We received permission, but they are not responsible if something happens to us.
Marcia Biggs:
Right now there is no plan to start cleaning the old city or even determine how many min. This is still not within the boundaries, except for the Iraqi security forces.
Thus, the Janus team focuses on progress in the rest of the city, building a bomb bomb.
Christian:
Whoever makes this device had a set target. And to allow him to win, people are injured. Thus, you seem to compete with him so that he is better than he to withdraw him before he can cause any harm.
Marcia Biggs:
So, you feel that you are won by the battle against ISIS?
Christian:
Yes, one IED at a time.
Marcia Biggs:
For PBS Newshour, I am Marcia Biggs in Mosul, Iraq.
Hari Srinivasan:
Tune in later.
The last film Frontline, Mosul, was on the ground, shooting the battle when he turned on the street by the street and house around the house. This is on PBS tonight.
