On a hot summer night in west Mosul, Colonel Muntathar Al Shammari sits on a sofa near the air conditioning unit and watches ISIL propaganda clips on his tablet.
"Qannas," he mutters, 'sniper', as he streams video of extremist sharpshooters in action in the deadly battle for Mosul, which was declared won earlier that day, July 10, by Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi after almost nine months of fighting.
One clip shows an ISIL sniper gunning down a soldier of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, the elite counterterrorism force to which Col Al Shammari belongs.
The officer, who commands the Mosul Battalion of ISOF's Second Brigade, lays down the tablet and reaches for a cigarette. A tall, portly man sporting the sort of moustache that has become fashionable among Iraqi soldiers over the course of the battle, he sits relaxed in denim shorts reaching below his knees, and a black T-shirt with a print of Austrian pistol manufacturer Glock.
The spacious family home in the Mosul Al Jadida neighbourhood has been Col Al Shammari's base since his battalion helped liberate the area. The unit's final task was to spearhead the attack into the Old City, Mosul's historic core. It swiftly achieved its objectives and has now halted its advance — the reason why the colonel is kicking back.

Col Muntathar Al Shammari (third from right) sits with some of his men at his base in Mosul Al Jadida on July 9, 2017
His quiet evening is interrupted by a group of men in the distinctive black uniforms of the special forces, who have entered the house through the adjacent kitchen. They step into the living room one by one, politely shaking the hands of everyone sitting on the sofa that curves around one side of the room in a horseshoe shape. The platoon has come straight from the devastated Old City, where their position abuts the final pocket of ISIL resistance.
The soldiers have come to honour their commander. They throng around the 37-year-old colonel to present him with an ancient bolt action rifle they found somewhere in the rubble, then wrap an Iraqi flag around his neck before launching into an Iraqi victory chant. When the chanting recedes, Col Al Shammari addresses his troops.

Iraqi special forces gather to celebrate the liberation of the ruined Grand Al Nuri mosque on July 2, 2017
"You are the ones who should be celebrated. You are the ones who have been fighting this battle," he praises them.
Col Al Shammari is referring to a self-congratulatory victory speech made earlier in the day by Mr Al Abadi, who travelled to Mosul for the occasion. The colonel has little time for the politicians basking in the glory of the military's achievement. But he cares deeply for his men, who adore him.
"The ones who are celebrating, like the prime minister, they lead normal lives. But we have fought for a long time, and we lost a lot of men. We might celebrate the victory, but in our hearts we are sad," he says once the platoon has left.
Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi gives a victory speech in Mosul on July 10, 2017
Since the assault on ISIL-held Mosul began on October 17, ISOF has been in the thick of it. The elite troops flushed the militants out of east Mosul almost single-handedly, and then plunged into the grinding battle to liberate the west bank of the Tigris river, which bisects the city.
The price of success has been high. A US government report released in May — two months before the end of the fighting — put the casualty rate of the special forces in Mosul at 40 per cent. The army, federal police and the Emergency Response Division, another elite group, also took heavy casualties.
A reminder of the civilian suffering in Mosul walks through the door a little later. Propped up by Col Al Shammari's assistant, an old man in a dirty white thobe is hunched over a crutch as he slowly makes his way across the room.
The frail old man is from Al Zinjili, a neighbourhood in west Mosul that was liberated by Col Al Shammari's battalion after bitter fighting.
The battle for west Mosul, which commenced in February, was more bloody and destructive than the contest for the east bank. To overcome stiff resistance with depleted forces, the Iraqis increasingly called on air support and artillery fire by the US-led coalition. While in east Mosul life pulsates through the streets today as though the war was a distant memory, western neighbourhoods like Al Zinjili are heavily battered and emptied of most inhabitants.
After greeting Col Al Shammari, the old man begins his lament: one of his four daughters was seriously injured by an explosive booby trap while running towards Iraqi lines and is now in a hospital in nearby Erbil. His house is destroyed, and the family displaced.
"You rescued us from hell, but now we are in financial difficulties," says the man.
Col Al Shammari knows the story. He helped the daughter get to hospital, and the old man has previously been around to beg for food. The officer says a few words to his assistant, who leaves the room and returns with 500,000 Iraqi dinar (Dh1,571). Col Al Shammari hands the bundle of cash to the man, who receives it gratefully and shuffles off.
Reporter Florian Neuhof discusses life in Mosul after ISIL with Naser Al Wasmi
A key challenge for police, army, intelligence services and special forces is to work together to root out terrorists in Mosul before they grow in strength.
"The post-Saddam Iraqi government has never been very good at intelligence. If they can improve, they can prevent a new insurgency from re-emerging. If not, it would seem almost inevitable," says Mr Rabkin.
Once it has helped eliminate the remaining ISIL strongholds in Iraq, Col Al Shammari's battalion will resume its pre-war work of hunting down terrorists in Mosul. The colonel insists he can still call on a network of informants in the city and is well equipped to prevent Mosul from falling to the extremists again. But the officer has been fighting ISIL and its extremist predecessors for too long to be complacent.
"It is like a disease: there is a chance this will happen again," he says.
Credits:
Words - Florian Neuhof
Images - Florian Neuhof, AFP
Graphics - Ramon Penas
Video - Florian Neuhof, Reuters
Video Editing - Andy Scott
Editing - Laura Mackenzie
Copyright The National, 2017