area; the government forces will bombard it soon.” He had us released. I whispered to him to recover our camera, mobile phones and laptop, and he did. The Doha editorial department, who were with us every step of the way, asked me to abort the mission. Unlike what many may think, ISIL did not deem Al Jazeera a friendly media organisation. On the contrary, the group’s operatives always looked at us with suspicion, if not malice. The following day, the Emir of Hawija telephoned to apologise. “The top command is not willing to have Al Jazeera in. What happened was beyond my control and authority,” he said. I responded: “You are against Al Jazeera; you even mean to harm us. You have been holding our crew in Tikrit for days.” He kept silent for a moment as I pinpointed their whereabouts. He said he had no clue about it, but he promised to do something.
Five hours later, our correspondent Ayoub Ridha, cameraman Ihsan Azawi and driver Faisal Nahi, were released and returned home safely. Having covered events in the world’s most dangerous war zone, especially the ISIL-held areas, I kept asking: How could a small group of militants seize control of more than one-third of Iraq? How could the historic Mosul fall into their hands? Many questions kept buzzing in my head, but I left with almost no convincing answers.
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