{"id":21832,"date":"2018-11-10T00:27:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T00:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21832"},"modified":"2018-11-10T00:27:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T00:27:56","slug":"mosul-fears-return-of-daesh-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21832","title":{"rendered":"Mosul fears return of Daesh nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nMOSUL: A deadly car bomb in Iraq\u2019s Mosul, the first since the city was recaptured from terrorists, has left residents shaken and terrified that past nightmares are returning to haunt them.<\/p>\n

\nThe blast late on Thursday hit the popular Abu Layla restaurant in Mosul, the northern city that for three years served as Daesh\u2019s Iraq headquarters.<\/p>\n

\nWhen residents awoke to the scene of destruction on Friday morning, they feared their bloody past with Daesh was not yet behind them.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe were liberated, so we thought that security was back,\u201d said Mossab, a 25-year-old restaurant employee.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut now it\u2019s worse than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThree people were killed and 12 wounded in the bombing, medical and security sources said.<\/p>\n

\nThe restaurant suffered significant damage. One side, which sits on a road junction, seemed to have its windows blown out and the facade partly sheared off.<\/p>\n

\nThe cars in the street all had shattered or cracked windscreens and were covered in black ash and debris.<\/p>\n

\nMossab\u2019s car, parked nearby, was one of them.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI\u2019ve been working for four years to save up to buy it, but it all went in the blink of an eye,\u201d he said, devastated.<\/p>\n

\nMore violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nIraqi security forces were deployed outside the restauarant on Friday, standing guard as cleaning crews worked to remove the debris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nResidents nervously came to inspect the damage.<\/p>\n

\nKhodor Ali, a 38-year-old who lives nearby, was worried there would be more violence.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf the security situation stays like this, then our future is in the gutter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nTroops and paramilitaries recaptured Mosul in July last year, months before the government declared Daesh had finally been defeated in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\nBut the group still carries out bloody hit-and-run attacks, mostly in the rugged mountains of the north and in desert areas along the western border with Syria.<\/p>\n

\nSecurity forces frequently arrest suspected terrorists or break up sleeper cells, and are still uncovering Daesh tunnels and hideouts in Mosul.<\/p>\n

\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday\u2019s attack, but a statement by security forces blamed it on \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAli said Iraqi officials were at least partly to blame for Thursday night\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf they weren\u2019t able to protect the city, they shouldn\u2019t stay,\u201d he said angrily.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe only thing these officials want are senior posts. They told us, \u2018IS (Daesh) is finished\u2019 \u2014 but then there\u2019s a car bomb that kills innocent people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nCorruption<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nCity officials have pointed the finger at the security forces deployed across Mosul.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOne of the main reasons we\u2019re seeing a deterioration of the security situation is that there are too many decision-makers,\u201d said member of parliament for Mosul, Ahmad Al-Jarba.<\/p>\n

\nBetween Iraq\u2019s central military command and the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary force, both of which are stationed in and around Mosul, there were mixed signals on security, Jarba said. He said endemic corruption had also played a role.<\/p>\n

\nIraq is the 12th most corrupt country in the world, according to monitoring group Transparency International.<\/p>\n

\nMosul\u2019s residents have shouldered much of the rebuilding themselves, opening restaurants and shops along the Tigris river that divides the city.<\/p>\n

\nBut after Thursday\u2019s blast, the spectre of IS seems closer than they had thought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOSUL: A deadly car bomb in Iraq\u2019s Mosul, the first since the city was recaptured from terrorists, has left residents shaken and terrified that past nightmares are returning to haunt them. The blast late on Thursday hit the popular Abu Layla restaurant in Mosul, the northern city that for three years served as Daesh\u2019s Iraq…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}