IS RETURN TO SITE OF FIRST ASSAULT ON THE CITY FOR PROPAGANDA VIDEO

• Source: Islamic State via Archive.org (Confirmed)

• Location: Mosul (Confirmed)

• Date: November 28, 2014 (Corroborated)

• Archived here

The footage shows a busy city with traffic on the streets and people going about their business. A number of people are interviewed. The battle for Mosul is described, as well as details of life for residents under IS control. The video details the Sharia law courts in operation in the city.

Source:

Al-Hayat Media Center, an IS-affiliated media agency that specifically targeted westerners, released a video on November 28, 2014, that showed scenes from inside Mosul. IS militants captured the city in June after government forces abandoned their positions. Al-Hayat Media Center’s logo is shown at the start of the video and as a watermark throughout. The footage was shared via archive.org.

Location:

The location can be confirmed by comparison with Google Maps. The video was shot at a distinctive hotel in Mosul. See also Google Images. The hotel can be seen from 1:30 in the video.

The area surrounding the hotel is described in the video as where the assault on Mosul began. Storyful verified eyewitness video of the aftermath of the assault in June 2014, in which the hotel could be seen (archived here). The video shows distinctive lampposts, which tally with a photo shared on Google Images from the same street.

Date:

The earliest English-language reference to the video on Twitter was on November 28, 2014, on the now-suspended account @Shohdaa00 (this account was not archived at the time). The account had “Islamic Caliphate” in Arabic in its description. The account frequently posted about IS. The account can be retrieved on the Wayback Machine.