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Byron Smith
November 2016 — Seen from a building that has taken artillery fire, toxic smoke billows from one of the remaining oil wells set ablaze by ISIS months prior in the terrorist group’s retreat from the area.
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Byron Smith
December 2016 — Shaima Abdurazak displays the wounds sustained by her nine-year-old daughter, Naja Mahmoud, from an ISIS suicide car bomb attack at their home in Mosul. In the attack, Abdurazak also suffered a serious leg injury.
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Byron Smith
July 2017 — Coalition airstrikes and incoming mortar rounds from ISIS land meters away as civilians flee the militant-held territory. Under cover of the Iraqi Army, they work to push the remaining fighters of the terror group out of the city.
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Byron Smith
July 2017 — A day after the Iraqi government declared ISIS was defeated in Mosul, heavy fighting persisted, creating ongoing danger for newly liberated residents in the Old City. With temperatures exceeding 110 degrees, many needed medical attention for heat exhaustion.
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Byron Smith
July 2017 — A military sniper helps an infant while standing amid rubble near the Great Mosque of al-Nuri days after the Iraqi government declared victory over ISIS in Mosul. Residents flee the Old City neighborhood in droves.
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Byron Smith
July 2017 — An ISIS suspect is interrogated by an Iraqi army general and his platoon after being caught posing as a civilian at the front line. Nearly a week after Mosul was declared liberated, airstrikes and small arms fire are still being used to rout militant remnants in the Midan neighborhood.
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Byron Smith
July 2017 — An attack helicopter flies past the rubble of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate of the terrorist organization. The battle destroyed Mosul’s infrastructure, displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, and left the lingering problem of how to deal with the families of ISIS fighters.
October marks the first anniversary of the start of the battle for Mosul, Iraq, a major military operation undertaken by U.S.-backed Iraqi and Kurdish armed forces. Its goal: to wrest the city back from ISIS after it fell to the terrorist organization in June 2014. This caused a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions.