What it’s like to get your home back from Islamic State
By: Abc News
Tags: This Happened To Me, Refugees, Iraq, ISIS, Syria

What it’s like to get your home back from Islamic State

This is the moment Khalil Ibrahim’s been waiting for, and feared may never come. After more than 12 long months, he can finally go home.

By Rebecca Collard in Iraq

At a checkpoint near Makhmour in northern Iraq, he shows his papers to Kurdish soldiers.

His wife, 10 children and their few belongings are packed into their car, waiting in the blazing sun.

Other families also wait, with trucks stacked high with all they acquired in their months or years in exile — appliances, bedding, children’s bikes and even satellite dishes.

“I miss my house, my home,” says Ibrahim as he waits for the soldiers’ permission to move past the checkpoint. “I’m homesick.”

We met Ibrahim at the checkpoint as Iraqi forces were routing Islamic State militants from their holdouts in preparation for the major assault on the northern city of Mosul that’s now underway.

The Ibrahim family passes the checkpoint in Makhmour, Iraq, on the way back to their village. Picture: Rebecca Collard

Before Islamic State, Ibrahim says, his life was happily unremarkable. A teacher with a middle-class life in the poor rural village of Al-Khadraniyah, just west of the Tigris River, his life was centred around his family.

He had a comfortable home with a small courtyard where his children played. Many of his relatives lived nearby and they often met to share meals and drink tea.

Islamic State took his village in June 2014 as it overran Mosul. Hundreds of Islamist fighters attacked government installations and security forces, overwhelming the city after a battle lasting five days.

As the terrorist insurgents swept south, Al-Khadraniyah was also in their path.

Ibrahim hatches escape plan

Ibrahim says he was spared the terror and violence IS wreaked elsewhere. At first, he and his family stayed put. They didn’t want to leave their home, nor join the hundreds of thousands who fled and are now in camps and crowded shelters in northern Iraq.

But soon food became scarce. The militants’ patrols were intimidating, and his wife felt unsafe. He hatched an escape plan.

Though under IS control, Ibrahim was still receiving his teacher’s salary from the Iraqi central government. IS was happy for him to collect his wage from the nearby city of Kirkuk, as they levied a hefty tax on it.

“They let us out to get our salaries,” Ibrahim explains. “So I set out for Kirkuk one day and I just never went back.”

An Iraqi family with their belongings in a truck heads toward a checkpoint in Makhmour on their way back to their village. Picture: Rebecca Collard

It took four months to have his family smuggled out.

They had remained there ever since in small rooms in Erbil, the de-facto capital of the Kurdish region, struggling to pay rent and find food, and often depending on aid.

Then, just over a month ago, Iraqi forces took back Al-Khadraniyah. They waited keenly for the moment they could return home.

But as they finally set out, Ibrahim still didn’t know what to expect: Is his house still standing? Will their possessions still be inside? He’s heard IS looted and destroyed the homes of those who left, but still, he says, returning to a looted home is better than staying in Erbil.

“IS loots everything,” says Ibrahim. “Maybe my house will be destroyed.”

Conflict turns short trip into difficult journey

A man shows his permission papers to a Kurdish solider at checkpoint in northern Iraq. Picture: Rebecca Collard

At the checkpoint, Ibrahim is finally allowed to pass, but the Kurdish guards say they won’t let us go with him. They can’t guarantee our safety.

Despite the risks, the whole family is smiling as they leave. It’s less than 15 kilometres to their village, but it proves to be a difficult journey.

A few hours later Ibrahim calls. He’s been held up at another checkpoint along with five other families.

An Iraqi family with all their belongings packed in a truck heads toward a checkpoint in Makhmour on their way back to their village. Picture: Rebecca Collard

Before IS, the trip from his home to Erbil took just over an hour. Now, it’s taken him all day and requires permits and permission to pass the checkpoints controlled by various military groups operating in the area.

“I hope they will let us go,” he says, frustrated on the phone.

Eventually, he’s allowed through, but by then it’s almost dark and he stays with relatives nearby, rather than continue on at night.

“It’s dangerous. There are mines on the main road to the village,” he says.

IS leaves mark on Ibrahim’s home

Khalil Ibrahim returned home to find Islamic State militants had smashed windows and caused other damage. Picture: Khalil Ibrahim

As Iraqi forces launched their assault on Mosul, Ibrahim finally arrived home.

He found broken windows, smashed furniture and the washing machine wrecked in the courtyard. Everything that could be removed had been looted, and IS left its name spray-painted on the wall.

More than 1 million people were displaced when IS took over swathes of Iraq two years ago. Like Ibrahim, most are anxious to get home.

The Ibrahim family found their washing machine in the courtyard of their home. Picture: Khalil Ibrahim

Ibrahim updates us by phone. He says Iraqi army tanks sit in the streets of his village.

“My village is safe,” he says “But ISIS is just on the other side of the river.”

Security forces have now pushed IS out of more than 80 villages. They are clearing the booby traps and unexploded munitions. But it will be weeks, or months, before most people will be able to return, as Ibrahim has done.