Anonymous social media reporter who battled ISIS goes public

When the Mosul, Iraq was under occupation by ISIS the “Mosul Eye” was born. He remained anonymous for three years, walking the war-torn streets and reporting on the atrocities committed by the terrorist group in his beloved city of Mosul. During those three years, the “Mosul Eye” became an invaluable source of information to the world as he cataloged the war crimes committed by ISIS.

Now, he has come forward, revealing himself as Omar Mohammed, a 31-year-old scholar, born and raised in Mosul. Thousands have rushed to thank him for his bravery and service, posting their well-wishes on social media.

Mohammad told the AP that his decision to reveal his identity was in honor of his brother, who died in the final battle for Mosul, and his grieving mother:

“I can’t be anonymous anymore. This is to say that I defeated ISIS. You can see me now, and you can know me now,” he told AP.

Mohammed was an unremarkable civilian by day. He followed the rules set by ISIS to preserve his cover, growing his hair and beard and wearing the required shortened trousers. He made casual conversation with vendors and ISIS fighters, visited his friends who worked in hospitals, and even forced himself to witness executions so that he could hear the names of those slain by the extremist regime.

But by night he was the “Mosul Eye,” reporting all that he saw and heard to the world via social media. Knowing that if he was ever discovered, he would become yet another name called out during an execution, he remained firm in his commitment to document the lost lives of countless Mosul citizens, and inform the world of their dire need for intervention.

Yahoo has some of the information Omar collected and organized into spread sheets. Next to each incident are observations he made:

“IS is forcing abortions and tubal ligation surgeries on Yazidi women,” he wrote in unpublished notes from January 2015. A doctor told him there had been between 50 and 60 forced abortions and a dozen Yazidi girls younger than 15 died of injuries from repeated rapes. April 19, 2015: “The forensics department received the bodies of 23 IS militants killed in Baiji. They had no shrapnel, no bullets, no explosives and the cause of death does not seem to be explosion. It is like nothing happened to the bodies. A medical source believes they were exposed to poison gas.” July 7, 2015: “43 citizens were executed in different places, this time by gunfire, which is unusual because they were previously beheadings. A source inside IS said that 13 of those who were executed are fighters and they tried to flee.”

As the war grew more desperate, Omar escaped the city and made it to Europe by means of a smuggler who charged him $1,000, on Dec. 15, 2015. Read more in this captivating link.