Life Inches Back To Normal In East Mosul, But Worries Remain

Freedom and equality forever ♤♡♢♧

There are a lot of children playing outside in eastern Mosul. They run around the front yards of their houses, chasing each other through the alleyways, as their parents sit on plastic chairs keeping — at most — half an eye on them.

At the al-Kufa boys' school, Mustafa Salem, 13, says this freedom is new. During the 2 1/2 years that ISIS controlled his neighborhood, he was rarely allowed to leave the house.

"It wasn't good, there was no school, nothing," he said.

His parents were afraid the extremists would take him and forcibly enlist him in jihadist training camps for boys, known as the "Cubs of the Caliphate."

"ISIS was taking children my age," he said.

And like most children, he was kept at home from ISIS schools by his parents, who were horrified by a curriculum that revolved around violence.

Last month, Iraqi security forces, with support from a U.S.-led coalition, forced ISIS out of the eastern half of the city. Unlike in other Iraqi cities retaken from the extremists, most of the infrastructure remained in place and intact. So did the civilians.