### Step 1: Literal Narrative
The battle for Mosul, Iraq, the former de facto capital of the Islamic State, concluded in July after a ten-month conflict that resulted in thousands of casualties. A new, significant challenge has emerged: the extensive presence of ISIS mines, booby-traps, and bombs that permeate the city. Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports from Mosul, detailing the efforts to clear these remnants.
The Mosul Technical Institute, once an educational hub for over 6,000 students, now stands in ruins, with classrooms burned, laboratories destroyed, and books damaged. This destruction is representative of the five universities in Mosul that were ravaged by ISIS and the subsequent battle. The primary danger now is the widespread deployment of landmines and booby-traps by ISIS.
Biggs accompanies Christian, a team leader from Janus Global Operations, a firm contracted by the U.S. government to clear unexploded ordnance and mines. Christian explains the intricate process of locating and disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs), noting the need to clear roads leading to target buildings. The United States has allocated $30 million this year for clearing former ISIS territories in Northern Iraq. Janus has cleared 727 buildings and removed 3,000 IEDs, which they state were produced by ISIS on an industrial scale. However, U.S. State Department officials and experts consider the quantity of unexploded ordnance in Mosul to be unprecedented.
Janus Global prioritizes clearing infrastructure essential for community return, such as schools, power, sewer, and water systems, before addressing individual homes. This clearance process is projected to take years, possibly decades. To expedite this, Janus is training local Iraqis to form front-line search teams, who then investigate and remove suspicious items under supervision. Christian expresses confidence in the trainees’ aptitude and intelligence.
Fawzi al Nabdi, team leader for the Iraqi partner company Al Fahad, has six years of experience clearing mines across Iraq. He views his work as a vital job and appreciates the American assistance and expertise. He acknowledges that Mosul presents the largest clearing project he has encountered, with the university campus alone estimated to require at least a month for mine clearance before cleanup can begin.
The Mosul Technical Institute was used by ISIS as a military base and a site for manufacturing mines and bombs, making it a target for coalition airstrikes. Dean Ghassan Alubaidy confirms that the institute was hit nine times, including its workshops, rendering them unusable. Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, identified 81 locations with unexploded bombs. Facilities used for weapons production were often high-priority targets. One former electrical engineering workshop, hit by an airstrike in 2015, yielded bomb-making instructions among the debris, suggesting it was an ISIS bomb-making factory.
Despite the damage, Dean Alubaidy plans to hold classes in alternate buildings this fall, anticipating thousands of students eager to resume their education after a three-year disruption. He notes a strong desire among students to return, as evidenced by their encouraging posts on social media. Mosul University has already resumed classes, with students volunteering for cleanup efforts.
West Mosul, particularly the densely packed Old City, bore the brunt of the battle and presents significant challenges for mine-sweeping due to flattened buildings. Fawzi al Nabdi recounts a tragic incident where a man and his two children were killed by a bomb upon returning to their home. Residents are largely prohibited from returning to neighborhoods like Ahmed Younes’s, on the outskirts of the Old City, though Younes received special permission to retrieve personal items, acknowledging the inherent risks.
Currently, there is no plan to clear the Old City or even assess the extent of the mine contamination. It remains off-limits to all but Iraqi security forces. The Janus team is focusing on progress in other parts of the city, clearing buildings and bombs systematically. Christian views the work as a competition against the perpetrators of these devices, aiming to neutralize them before they can cause harm, and feels they are winning this battle “one IED at a time.” The PBS NewsHour also notes that Frontline’s film “Mosul” documented the battle as it unfolded.
### Step 2: Alternative Narrative
The aftermath of the battle for Mosul reveals a city not merely scarred by conflict, but deliberately and systematically booby-trapped by the departing Islamic State. Beyond the visible destruction of institutions like the Mosul Technical Institute, a pervasive and insidious threat remains: the unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) left behind, designed to inflict casualties long after the fighting has ceased. This narrative focuses on the deliberate nature of ISIS’s tactics and the profound, long-term implications for the city’s recovery and its inhabitants.
The destruction of the Mosul Technical Institute, with its burnt classrooms and shattered laboratories, serves as a stark symbol of ISIS’s disregard for civilian infrastructure and education. However, the true danger lies not just in the physical devastation, but in the hidden, lethal legacy ISIS intentionally embedded within the urban landscape. The systematic placement of mines and booby-traps, as demonstrated by Janus Global Operations team leader Christian, suggests a calculated strategy to continue its campaign of terror and disruption. The sheer scale of IED production, described as “industrial scale,” points to a deliberate effort to make Mosul a deathtrap for its returning population.
The $30 million U.S. investment in clearing operations underscores the magnitude of the problem, with 3,000 IEDs removed by Janus alone. Yet, the “unprecedented” number of unexploded ordnance in Mosul suggests that these efforts are merely scratching the surface. The prioritization of clearing essential infrastructure over individual homes, while logical for enabling return, also highlights the vastness of the task and the potential for continued civilian casualties in the interim. The training of local Iraqis, while a necessary step towards self-sufficiency, places them on the front lines of a highly dangerous and protracted undertaking.
The story of the Mosul Technical Institute’s transformation into a weapons factory and military base, followed by coalition airstrikes, illustrates how ISIS weaponized civilian institutions. Dean Alubaidy’s account of bomb-making instructions found in the rubble of a workshop hit by an airstrike in 2015 suggests that these sites were not only targets but also active centers of ISIS’s lethal manufacturing. This dual threat – the original damage from airstrikes and the residual danger of unexploded ordnance from ISIS’s own activities – complicates the path to recovery.
The resilience of students and faculty, eager to resume education despite the devastation, is a testament to the human spirit. However, their return is contingent on the painstaking and dangerous process of demining. The tragic incident in West Mosul, where a father and his children were killed by a bomb upon entering their home, serves as a chilling reminder of the immediate and lethal risks faced by residents attempting to reclaim their lives. The fact that the Old City, the site of ISIS’s last stand, remains largely uncleared and off-limits underscores the depth of the challenge and the potential for this danger to persist for years, if not decades. Christian’s framing of the work as a battle against the perpetrators, “one IED at a time,” emphasizes the ongoing, albeit often unseen, struggle against ISIS’s enduring tactics.
### Step 3: Meta-Analysis
The two narratives, while derived from the same source material, exhibit distinct differences in framing, emphasis, and implied focus.
The **Literal Narrative** adheres closely to the chronological and factual reporting of the PBS NewsHour segment. Its primary emphasis is on presenting the events and statements as they occurred, providing a comprehensive overview of the situation in Mosul. It prioritizes conveying information about the scale of the problem, the efforts being made to address it, and the perspectives of key individuals involved, such as the Janus Global team leader and the university dean. The tone is informative and objective, aiming to relay the facts of the post-battle landscape.
The **Alternative Narrative**, conversely, adopts a more interpretive and analytical stance. It seeks to uncover the underlying strategies and motivations behind ISIS’s actions, framing the presence of mines and IEDs not merely as a consequence of war, but as a deliberate and ongoing tactic of terror. This narrative emphasizes the “hidden danger” and the calculated nature of ISIS’s legacy, suggesting a persistent threat that extends beyond the immediate aftermath of the fighting. It highlights the human cost of these deliberate actions, as exemplified by the tragic incident in West Mosul, and underscores the long-term implications for the city’s recovery. The framing here is more focused on the “why” and the “how” of ISIS’s actions, and the profound impact on the civilian population.
Key differences in emphasis include:
* **Causality:** The Literal Narrative presents the mines and IEDs as a consequence of the battle and ISIS’s presence. The Alternative Narrative emphasizes the *deliberate and strategic* placement of these devices as a continuation of ISIS’s campaign.
* **Human Element:** While both narratives include human perspectives, the Alternative Narrative tends to highlight the human cost and the resilience of the population in the face of this specific, insidious threat.
* **ISIS’s Role:** The Literal Narrative describes ISIS’s actions factually. The Alternative Narrative interprets these actions as part of a calculated, long-term strategy of disruption and terror.
* **Scope of the Problem:** Both acknowledge the scale, but the Alternative Narrative frames it as a more pervasive and intentionally engineered danger.
Omissions, or rather, shifts in focus, are also apparent. The Literal Narrative provides a more balanced account of the various aspects of post-battle recovery, including the efforts of organizations like Janus Global and the aspirations of the university. The Alternative Narrative, by focusing on the “hidden danger,” implicitly downplays some of the more immediate recovery efforts in favor of emphasizing the enduring threat posed by the ordnance.
In essence, the Literal Narrative functions as a factual report, while the Alternative Narrative acts as a thematic exploration, drawing inferences and highlighting the strategic dimensions of the situation.
### Step 4: Background Note
The conflict in Mosul, Iraq, was a pivotal moment in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ISIS, an extremist militant group, rose to prominence in the early 2010s, seizing large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and declaring a “caliphate.” Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, became a key stronghold and the de facto capital of ISIS in Iraq.
The battle to retake Mosul, which lasted from October 2016 to July 2017, was one of the largest urban warfare campaigns in decades. It involved a coalition of Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, and international forces, including those from the United States. The fighting was exceptionally brutal, characterized by intense urban combat, widespread destruction, and a significant number of civilian casualties. ISIS employed a range of tactics, including human shields, tunnels, and the extensive use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to defend its territory.
The legacy of ISIS’s occupation and the subsequent battle has left Mosul with immense challenges. Beyond the physical destruction of infrastructure, the pervasive presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance poses a severe and long-lasting threat to the safety and recovery of the city. These devices are not only a direct danger to civilians attempting to return to their homes and rebuild their lives but also hinder reconstruction efforts and economic revitalization.
The United States, through various agencies and contractors like Janus Global Operations, has been involved in extensive demining and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) efforts in post-conflict zones. These operations are critical for enabling humanitarian aid, the return of displaced populations, and the resumption of normal life. The scale of the problem in Mosul, as described in the source material, highlights the immense logistical, financial, and human resources required for such clearance operations, which can often take years or even decades to complete.
Furthermore, the use of educational institutions as military bases and bomb-making facilities by ISIS underscores their strategy of co-opting civilian infrastructure for their operations, thereby increasing the collateral damage and complicating the efforts of coalition forces. The resilience of the students and faculty in Mosul, eager to resume their education, reflects a broader desire for normalcy and a rejection of the extremist ideology that sought to disrupt their lives and futures.
