Islamic State turned Mosul into city of terror and darkness
MOSUL, Iraq — She survived the first stone that struck her, then the second.
One of the Islamic State group’s fighters bent down and pressed his fingers to the side of her neck to check her pulse.
As her horrified neighbours watched, extremists threw a third stone at the young woman, who was accused of adultery. That one killed her.
It was, for those who witnessed it, the cruelest moment in Mosul’s descent into fear, hunger and isolation under 2 1/2 years of IS rule. Before the militants’ takeover, Iraq’s second-largest city was arguably the most multicultural place in the country, with a Sunni Muslim Arab majority but also thriving communities of Kurds, Shiites, Christians and Yazidis. Together, they had created Mosul’s distinct identity, with its own cuisine, intellectual life and economy.