His Only Crime Was Coming Home

As Western-backed forces push Islamic State out of Mosul, its militants are laying minefields in their wake – aimed not at soldiers but at ordinary people who have come back to rebuild their lives. Colin Freeman went on a tour of Iraq’s new killing fields

All it took for Muqdad Ghalib Hamid to die was to turn on his TV. Last October, after two years in exile, he returned to his home village of Barima, a farming hamlet on the plains outside the Iraqi city of Mosul. The Isis fighters who had seized it in 2014 had just been driven out after a battle with Kurdish troops and, from a distance, most of it seemed as if it was in ruins. Yet, as he picked his way down streets razed by air strikes, he was delighted to find the family home still intact. Inside, he picked up the TV remote, wondering if the satellite dish still had a signal. A huge explosion followed, killing the father of two and leaving his brother badly injured.

The bomb that ripped Hamid apart was one of hundreds of Isis booby traps scattered around Barima, and was probably triggered by the remote’s infrared “on” switch. There is little doubt who it was intended for. The fighters who planted it would have known that the soldiers pursuing them would not have time to sit and watch TV. Their target was ordinary Iraqi civilians like Hamid, whose only crime was wanting to come home. Others have died opening booby-trapped fridges, freezers, cupboards and chicken coops, turning on lights, or simply pushing open their front door. Similar tales can now be heard all over the Mosul region, as the Western-backed push to retake Isis’ Iraqi capital gains ground.