Life in Mosul one year on

Today, June 10th is the anniversary of the taking of Mosul by ISIL. Residents of the city share their experiences of life under the militant group: Mona Mahmood, 'Life in Mosul one year on: 'Isis with all its brutality is more honest than the Shia government'...', The Guardian   Wednesday 10 June 2015

The penalty of looting is a hand cut [...] Isis is on its way to set up an archaeology department to excavate ancient sites in Mosul.

Meanwhile in the New York Review of Books today, Zaid Al-Ali has an interesting and equally disturbing text: 'Tikrit: Iraq’s Abandoned City', little prevention of looting went on there it seems.

Vignette: The source of a lot of the the misery ( Michael Luciano, 'Happy ‘Mission Accomplished’ Anniversary: A Look Back At the Defining Blunder Of G.W. Bush', May 01, 2015)