8 years, 3 months ago

To cross the front lines in the battle for Mosul, you just hail a cab

Hoshyar Faisal Qasim talks on his cellphone as he waits for fares near an Iraqi security forces checkpoint east of Mosul. “Poor people go to camps,” said taxi driver Hoshyar Faisal Qasim, “The others go to Irbil and Baghdad.” Qasim, 30, bearded with bluish eyes, had been driving a taxi for seven years in the semiautonomous Kurdish region east of Mosul before the offensive started. Once they reached a checkpoint, Qasim said he alerted security forces that the man was suspicious, “and then they took him for questioning.” Fellow driver Mohamed “George” Murad has also grown accustomed to the perils of traversing a war zone. “We got hit by IEDs, car bombs, everything back in the day,” he said as he stood beside his taxi near a checkpoint east of Mosul. They mainly drive soldiers and police, charging them a bit more than the cost of gas “because we know they don’t get much.” Late last month, U.S.-coalition forces destroyed the last of five bridges spanning the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul, cutting off access for taxis and other traffic to the city’s west side.

LA Times
Security Islamic State Driving Kurdish State East Iraqi Islamic Forces Murad Cab Iraqi Forces Qasim Security Checkpoints His Taxi Taxi Mohamed Gogjali Sadi Mohamed Hoshyar Faisal Qasim Mosul Driver

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