MILITANTS PARADE THROUGH MOSUL IN SHOW OF FORCE

Most IS propaganda has focused on the group’s ability to take on state military forces with far greater numbers and more advanced weaponry.

Social media was used to announce the group’s spread across parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, most notably in Mosul where the hashtag #AllEyesOnISIS helped sow fear among citizens and members of the Iraqi security forces in the city. In numerical terms, the military and armed police in the city dwarfed the approaching IS force, but the defenders failed to hold the city.

Displays of power and military force became a dominant strategy used by IS in Mosul. These videos were used as propaganda and as a recruiting tool. Some examples are listed below:

1. Militants Parade Through Mosul in Show of Force

• Source: Islamic State via JustPaste.it (Confirmed)

• Location: Mosul (Confirmed)

• Date: June 23, 2014 (Corroborated)
• Archived here

IS militants paraded vehicles and weapons through the streets of Mosul on June 23, according to eyewitness accounts (archived here). A convoy of IS vehicles carried armed men through the streets. These images, shared by an IS-linked account, were described as showing scenes from that military parade. The militants showed off the weapons and vehicles they seized when the Iraqi army fled.

Source:

The photos were posted to JustPaste.it, a photo-sharing platforms often used by IS at the time. This particular photo set linked back to the now-suspended @Nynwa_news Twitter account, which was affiliated with IS. That account shared a link to the photos. The account was removed by Twitter. Using the Wayback Machine tool, we were able to retrieve the account and some of the tweets.

The full photo set was available here: but the account was removed quickly.

Location:

While it was not possible to verify the location of each photo, the photos did tally with eyewitness accounts, and at least one of them was confirmed as having been taken in Mosul.

The minaret seen in the final image above tallies precisely with this geotagged image of the Haibat Kahtoon Mosque. The same image shows distinctive lamp posts, which tally with another photo shared on Google Images from that street.

The license plate seen in the first photo above are similar to those seen on Iraqi military vehicles. See examples here, here, and here. This corroborates the reports that IS seized weapons and military vehicles from the Iraqi army.

Date:

These photos were uploaded on and shared on June 24; however, they appear to tally with reports and video from the previous day. This footage, included in a broadcast by ITV, shows a parade of military vehicles in Mosul, which tallies with the images above.

The journalist John Irvine, who was at the scene, also tweeted about the military parade.