Liberation of Mosul, April 2017

Last April, I joined the Iraqi special forces’ “golden division” as they fought Islamic State in west Mosul. The old city is home to deeply embedded Isis fighters who hold an estimated 200,000 civilians hostage with car bombs and gunfights. It is an impossible situation for the Iraqi secutiry services, one that offers little hope for the people of Mosul. These drawings, I believe, are the first of this conflict and address some of the more common scenes while the war continues: from the liberated areas to the frontline, the destroyed streets, the camps for internally displaced people and the Isis screening centres.