:00:00. > :00:00.BBC News Channel. Form `` from me for now on BBC1, goodbye. Now, it is
:00:07. > :00:11.time for Al world. Mosul, a city at the centre
:00:12. > :00:14.of the battle foR Iraq. The world looks on powerless
:00:15. > :00:17.as a new force takes control Last year,
:00:18. > :00:33.I visited the city to tell the story Ordinary citizens determined to keep
:00:34. > :00:40.their dreams alive in the face TRANSLATION: I don't even know
:00:41. > :00:54.whether the new rulers will allow us Flying is my life,
:00:55. > :00:58.but now my priority is the lives I have been back to the region,
:00:59. > :01:05.and obtained rarely seen footage of the impact
:01:06. > :01:22.of the extraordinary rise of ISIS. Last year,
:01:23. > :01:25.I came to this hill on the outskirts of Mosul to tell the story of four
:01:26. > :01:29.people who escaped from life in one of the world's most dangerous
:01:30. > :01:40.cities, to learn to paraglide. TRANSLATION: Even if I lived in a
:01:41. > :01:57.modern, beautiful city with big and lots of greenery,
:01:58. > :01:59.it still doesn't compare to living I would only live in Iraq,
:02:00. > :02:11.the best country. A devout Christian
:02:12. > :02:15.and devoted flyer... My love for flying runs
:02:16. > :02:23.in my blood now. And a new member,
:02:24. > :02:27.a 42`year`old recently divorced Up their everything sad,
:02:28. > :02:37.everything violent, it is gone, For this aviation club, the Friday
:02:38. > :02:49.outings offered respite from The city was gripped by fear,
:02:50. > :03:02.a frustrated Sunni population was protesting against the rule
:03:03. > :03:06.of Baghdad's Shi'ite dominated Al Qaeda had made the city its base,
:03:07. > :03:17.frequently detonating car bombs The world was stunned when Mosul
:03:18. > :03:31.unexpectedly fell to a rampaging As the defeated Iraqi army fled
:03:32. > :03:38.Mosul and the citizens stoned their escaping tanks, the new force
:03:39. > :03:47.was quick to flaunt its brutality. ISIS is a grouping of some
:03:48. > :03:50.of the world's most violent Sunni militants, so extreme they have been
:03:51. > :04:00.disowned by Al Qaeda. In less than a week, their army
:04:01. > :04:07.took Mosul and threatened Baghdad. Their goal is to establish an
:04:08. > :04:11.ultraconservative state across the I couldn't imagine how the friends I
:04:12. > :04:26.had made here could live under this I wanted to see if I could find
:04:27. > :04:32.some of the members of the flying As a Western journalist, how close
:04:33. > :04:40.can you get to Mosul today? I began my journey by flying into
:04:41. > :04:51.Irbil before driving into the city. To begin with,
:04:52. > :04:53.the checkpoints under control We are approaching the second last
:04:54. > :05:09.checkpoint before reaching Mosul, As you get closer to Mosul,
:05:10. > :05:22.the situation at They have warned us that
:05:23. > :05:31.beyond this point there is only one more checkpoint and then they no
:05:32. > :05:37.longer control this area. He has been waved down by the
:05:38. > :05:54.Peshmerga. We have just arrived
:05:55. > :05:58.at the last checkpoint 500 metres down that road is
:05:59. > :06:01.where the insurgents are. That sign over their says, warning,
:06:02. > :06:04.do not go beyond this point. Then a group of soldiers,
:06:05. > :06:08.led by a brigadier, The Kurdish soldiers who guard this
:06:09. > :06:15.checkpoint are concerned about It is a gentleman's agreement,
:06:16. > :06:21.he tells me. But if it breaks, they will use
:06:22. > :06:26.it to assert independence. Does it worry your men that
:06:27. > :06:50.ISIS is just 500 metres away? The Peshmerga tell us our time is
:06:51. > :06:55.up. We need to leave the area. There may not be any fighting going
:06:56. > :07:03.on, but it is The difficulty of moving
:07:04. > :07:12.around the outskirts of Mosul made Even last year, as a woman in the
:07:13. > :07:18.city, she faced many restrictions. The flying club was one
:07:19. > :07:20.place she could escape. When I first met her,
:07:21. > :07:22.she was a strong, Just as I could not get into
:07:23. > :07:32.her city, she couldn't get out. From the relative safety of Irbil,
:07:33. > :07:35.I did manage to speak to her There is little electricity
:07:36. > :08:02.or fuel in the city. There is not bombing but we cannot
:08:03. > :08:06.say it is a safe place. Despite this,
:08:07. > :08:09.she will not leave her home town. What are your dreams now,
:08:10. > :08:19.for yourself and for your country? Even last year,
:08:20. > :08:22.the people in Mosul worked as denied peace, caught in a violent
:08:23. > :08:39.struggle between Sawley militia `` were denied police `` were denied
:08:40. > :08:41.peace. And were caught up between the Sunni government and the sheer
:08:42. > :08:43.army. Nonetheless,
:08:44. > :08:45.I did manage to go to Mosul at the The encounter turned out
:08:46. > :08:49.to be hugely prophetic. It was clear that
:08:50. > :08:51.the government's sympathies lay with the Sony citizens,
:08:52. > :08:53.angry with the discrimination they felt they received from the mainly
:08:54. > :08:56.Shi'ite government in Baghdad. Today, the black flag of ISIS
:08:57. > :09:30.flies over his office in the city. These rarely seen shots from
:09:31. > :09:33.inside Mosul are taken from a local contact, and they show
:09:34. > :09:38.the city under ISIS control. They are keen to show that control,
:09:39. > :09:54.with near daily parades. For them, it is not just
:09:55. > :09:58.about taking over the city. They want to show they can run it as
:09:59. > :10:02.well, getting the city back to work. That is not enough for thousands
:10:03. > :10:05.of people, who have fled. Some have been taken in
:10:06. > :10:08.by friends and family, others using But,
:10:09. > :10:23.for those with nowhere else to go, this refugee camp halfway between
:10:24. > :10:27.Mosul and Irbil, has become home. I assumed most people here would be
:10:28. > :10:36.of ISIS, but intent after tent, I assumed most people here would be
:10:37. > :10:40.of ISIS, but in tent after tent, This man, a Sunni, fled his village
:10:41. > :10:45.on the outskirts of Mosul with Insurgents are not foreigners,
:10:46. > :10:52.they are members of tribes. They are here to end the regime
:10:53. > :10:57.of Nouri al`Maliki. They are my countrymen,
:10:58. > :11:00.and I defend them with my soul. If it wasn't for my family,
:11:01. > :11:03.I would be the first to go This is a revolution of the Iraqi
:11:04. > :11:15.people, it is not ISIS. This is
:11:16. > :11:21.the Iraqi people's revolution. In another tent,
:11:22. > :11:23.I met a soldier who had defected. He recounted the moment when ISIS
:11:24. > :11:26.came to his base. I am talking to you
:11:27. > :11:35.but I am still in shock. If you surrender, and give up
:11:36. > :11:48.your weapon, they just take The reason I left was because
:11:49. > :11:51.of the bombing. We don't want to go through
:11:52. > :11:54.the same experience that Fallujah While we are in the camp,
:11:55. > :12:07.a prominent politician turned up. He is a former darling of the West
:12:08. > :12:09.now sees himself as a serious contender to replace
:12:10. > :12:11.Nouri al`Maliki. Courting the world's media, he
:12:12. > :12:14.offered sympathy to the refugees. They are very frustrated,
:12:15. > :12:16.downtrodden, they have suffered and I believe they should be
:12:17. > :12:27.restored to their homes. A lot
:12:28. > :12:32.of the people here say that they are so concerned about ISIS, they are
:12:33. > :12:36.worried about the military and any potential attacks by the military
:12:37. > :12:43.and ISIS isn't harming civilians. My answer to that on ISIS,
:12:44. > :12:47.this is the beginning. But I hope that we can recover
:12:48. > :12:54.the territories lost, Are you confident
:12:55. > :13:02.al`Maliki can do that? I am confident
:13:03. > :13:06.the government can do that. All this talk of leadership made
:13:07. > :13:09.me talk of the Falcon aviation He and his beloved family
:13:10. > :13:17.had decided to stay on in Mosul and it seemed nearly impossible be
:13:18. > :13:24.would meet again. He and his son had queued
:13:25. > :13:35.for three days for petrol and braved the checkpoints to
:13:36. > :13:38.drive out and meet me. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein,
:13:39. > :14:07.he has seen leaders come and go. I wondered what he made
:14:08. > :14:10.of the recent events. When the dust settles everything
:14:11. > :14:12.will return to normal. At the end of the day,
:14:13. > :14:15.we are Iraqi and we are staying put, There might be 1000 or 2000
:14:16. > :14:21.politicians and the politicians, either the new ones or the old
:14:22. > :14:24.ones, will eventually realise this. But I was worried
:14:25. > :14:32.about his son, who seemed more affected than his father
:14:33. > :14:35.by what had happened to his city. He was eager to show me a video
:14:36. > :14:38.of his last flight, When we saw him last year,
:14:39. > :14:48.he had seemed carefree. But now his passion for flying gave
:14:49. > :14:52.him a particular reason to fear I do not what the new rulers
:14:53. > :15:06.will think about that. It might be considered by them
:15:07. > :15:11.as breaking their new laws. Then you ask this question to
:15:12. > :15:28.someone who is addicted to a certain hobby,
:15:29. > :15:31.I can't imagine my reaction if I was Is this what is
:15:32. > :15:34.upsetting you most? Not only that, I'm more upset
:15:35. > :15:41.because of the current of Mosul. The city, its people,
:15:42. > :15:48.what they've been through. Personally,
:15:49. > :15:52.when I walk along the roads, the dust and houses and everything that
:15:53. > :15:55.Mosul is, I feel like crying now. But as a young man in Mosul
:15:56. > :16:03.the end of the Army curfews has made `` has made his life easier in some
:16:04. > :16:07.respects. The army used to arrest
:16:08. > :16:08.young people unfairly. I have been arrested at 2am
:16:09. > :16:12.and the reason given to me was that They hit me on both my back and
:16:13. > :16:16.my head with all types of weapons. I had to stay in bed for a week,
:16:17. > :16:20.being visited by a doctor. A fish dies outside
:16:21. > :16:31.the water. We said goodbye with
:16:32. > :16:46.promises to try and meet again. But I wondered if the next time we
:16:47. > :16:51.met it really would be in Mosul. Iraq has long been divided
:16:52. > :17:07.between Sunni and Shia. Now the Sunni tribes have joined
:17:08. > :17:19.forces with the ISIS militants. This is a violent uprising
:17:20. > :17:30.and a violent insurgency. No,
:17:31. > :17:42.this is a revolution of the tribes. It is the Sunnis revolution
:17:43. > :17:49.against oppression and injustice. Unfortunately, there are some who
:17:50. > :17:56.claim it is an ISIS revolution, a It's revolution
:17:57. > :17:59.against injustice against The political process has led to
:18:00. > :18:08.significant arming of Sunnis right. Are you finding
:18:09. > :18:23.the insurgents? funding.
:18:24. > :18:29.These are tribesmen, not These are already organised
:18:30. > :18:33.and armed militia and most of them are former army officials
:18:34. > :18:35.and security officials or policemen, But he is clear that his
:18:36. > :18:39.alliance with the Islamist of ISIS Fighting ISIS isn't
:18:40. > :18:43.on the agenda at the moment. But after we resolve our conflict
:18:44. > :18:46.with the government, then we will fight ISIS, just as we previously
:18:47. > :18:56.fought terrorism in 2006 and 2007. After that,
:18:57. > :19:01.we will have our rights respected but we will never fight
:19:02. > :19:06.ISIS on behalf of Nouri al`Maliki. Do you believe Iraq can
:19:07. > :19:39.remain one country? For many, the dream
:19:40. > :19:41.of a united Iraq has already ended. One of the members of the club I
:19:42. > :19:45.met last year was a Christian. Targeted by extremists,
:19:46. > :19:47.the doctor has now fled to Jordan The physical education teacher who
:19:48. > :19:51.trained young women at Mosul University, she was the first female
:19:52. > :19:54.hand glider in the Arab world. But that life
:19:55. > :19:56.and that world has gone. When this happens, minorities
:19:57. > :20:02.like us will have no place in Iraq. I've lost my friends, my job,
:20:03. > :20:25.my life. All she wants
:20:26. > :20:27.now is to be safe. Somewhere to be in with my children
:20:28. > :20:34.and husband, to start a new life from scratch with my children
:20:35. > :20:40.and let them finish their studies. Last year,
:20:41. > :20:44.when I first met the members of the aviation club, they were living
:20:45. > :20:52.in Iraq's most dangerous city. But they still had so much hope
:20:53. > :20:57.that there was a brighter future To meet them only one year later and
:20:58. > :21:06.see them grounded, simply focused on daily survival, rather than their
:21:07. > :21:09.dreams, gave me a small insight into For all of them, the hope
:21:10. > :21:18.of a peaceful homeland is becoming I never worked for
:21:19. > :21:51.the government and I never will. This keeps me away
:21:52. > :21:59.from getting involved in politics. Flying is my life,
:22:00. > :22:09.but now my priority is the lives I'll always miss flying but now I'll
:22:10. > :22:14.only do it My dream is to continue my studies
:22:15. > :22:25.and to become a civil pilot. I want one day to look
:22:26. > :22:32.at my shoulder and see the four gold stripes there
:22:33. > :23:22.which shows the world I am a pilot. If your garden is looking a bit dry,
:23:23. > :23:23.you may