Life in IS-ruled Mosul under scanner

BAGHDAD: In a government building in Mosul, a handful of Iraqi contractors gathered to compete for a tender last month. It was the kind of routine session that happens in cities everywhere — except here the contract was for fortifications ordered by the new rulers in town, Islamic State.
One member of the radical group grabbed a map and explained to those present what was required.
“Under Islamic State’s tender document, a trench two meters in depth and two meters in width needs to be dug around Mosul,” said a source in the city close to the tendering process.
The winning contractor will be paid the equivalent of $4,000 for each kilometer of trench, the source said.
Interviews with 11 Mosul residents, several of whom fled this month, reveal how Islamic State has created a police state strong enough to weather severe popular discontent and military setbacks, including the deaths of senior leaders.
Along with the planned trench, the militants have sealed Mosul’s western entrance with giant cement walls. They also blew up a bridge that Kurdish fighters could use to attack Mosul. “They will fight to the last drop of blood defending Mosul, and for them this battle could define their existence. Losing Mosul means a final defeat for Islamic State in Iraq,” said a retired army general living in Mosul.
In Mosul’s city center, in the old provincial council building, sits Islamic State’s religious court. Verdicts can be ruthless.
Last week, Islamic State in Mosul posted on the Internet its version of justice: the stoning of a woman accused of adultery; two men crucified, accused of armed robbery; and two men thrown from a building for allegedly being homosexual.
Islamic State runs at least four security organizations in Mosul, including traffic police and a tax force that collects revenues from businesses and individuals.
The most feared groups are an elite security committee that makes special arrests and gathers intelligence; and the Islamic moral police, or Hisba. The religious code enforced by Hisba includes bans on smoking and on t-shirts with English writing.
Businesses must close at prayer times; women and girls must veil their faces; and schools are segregated. The IS have forced Mosul’s remaining civil servants to work in Islamic State’s new government offices, which cover municipal services, energy, education, religion and health.
Baghdad earmarks at least $130 million monthly to pay Mosul government employees, whether they have stayed in the city or left, said Anwar Matti Hadaya, the exiled head of the Nineveh provincial council’s finance committee.
Food is readily available. Meat, vegetables, bread and fruit cost the same as before, and some prices are lower than those in Baghdad.
Only fuel prices are high and electricity, supplied by generators, has been cut to six hours a day. Tankers provide drinking water.
Butchers must pay a tax of around $4 a day to enter slaughterhouses to buy cattle and sheep.
Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari estimates Islamic State has looted $456 million from banks in Mosul, Tikrit and Baiji since its June land grab. “Islamic State is rich,” Zebari said. He predicted IS would create its own currency in the coming months.