Mosul hotel catered to elites: from Saddam allies to suicide bombers

All terrorists are cowards.
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Islamic State leaders, for their part, did their best to keep up morale, judging by a copy of their local propaganda newspaper left behind at the hotel. Front page headlines claim operations killed hundreds of Iraqi troops.

Another highlighted the attack on an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve.

There are no signs the hotel will be revived anytime soon, with fierce fighting expected in west Mosul.

Even if Islamic State is defeated in all of Mosul, the group is expected to stage an insurgency in Iraq, a country that has suffered from dictatorships, wars and sectarian violence that have ruined many ventures like the hotel.

The latest occupants, Iraqi soldiers, seem to have written it off as a lost cause, leaving styrofoam plates of rotting meat and rice on the floors of decimated rooms for weeks. In some areas, there were human feces.

Soldiers have a far more pressing issue to worry about - the militants watching them from just across the Tigris - with mortar attacks and gunfire keeping eastern Mosul on edge.

The only people wearing hotel slippers these days are Iraqi forces clutching assault rifles.