ERBIL, Iraq — Mohammed was 5 years old when his little brother was shot dead before his eyes. This happened in June 2014 when Islamic State (IS) militants stormed the city of Mosul and took over large parts of northern Iraq.
“IS terrorists shot my child because I was a soldier in the Iraqi army,” Mohammed’s father, a skinny man with deep lines in his face, told Al-Monitor with tears in his eyes. “And after they killed my son, they forced us to leave our home the same day. Money, jewelry, clothing — we had to leave behind everything we had in exchange for our lives.”
