1 00:00:02,033 --> 00:00:03,833 HARI SREENIVASAN: But first: The de facto capital of the Islamic State, Raqqa, in Syria 2 00:00:03,833 --> 00:00:06,300 fell yesterday to U.S.-backed forces. 3 00:00:06,300 --> 00:00:11,000 However, the largest city the militants once held was Mosul in Iraq. 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:16,000 They were ousted from it in July after a brutal 10-month-long fight that killed thousands. 5 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,066 Now a new major task: finding and destroying the ISIS mines, booby-traps and bombs that 6 00:00:21,966 --> 00:00:23,433 litter the city. 7 00:00:23,433 --> 00:00:26,033 Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports from Iraq. 8 00:00:26,033 --> 00:00:31,000 MARCIA BIGGS: It was once a center of learning for over 6,000 students of technology, agriculture, 9 00:00:33,266 --> 00:00:35,366 and medicine. 10 00:00:35,366 --> 00:00:39,700 Today, Mosul Technical Institute's classrooms are burnt to the ground, laboratories reduced 11 00:00:40,900 --> 00:00:43,866 to rubble, and books charred and shredded. 12 00:00:43,866 --> 00:00:48,633 It's one of the city's five universities ravaged by the Islamic State and the battle to oust 13 00:00:48,633 --> 00:00:50,766 it. 14 00:00:50,766 --> 00:00:54,633 Now that the battle is over, a new danger looms, the trail of land mines and booby-traps 15 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:56,933 left by ISIS. 16 00:00:56,933 --> 00:01:00,333 So this is the wire, and this is where it was buried. 17 00:01:00,333 --> 00:01:04,233 CHRISTIAN, Janus Global: Yes, they would cut the asphalt, and then they lay the wire in 18 00:01:04,233 --> 00:01:06,366 and put the main charge here. 19 00:01:06,366 --> 00:01:10,200 MARCIA BIGGS: We spent the day with Christian, a team leader from Janus Global, a security 20 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:15,200 and risk management firm hired by the U.S. government to sweep and clear major areas 21 00:01:16,300 --> 00:01:18,300 of unexploded ordnance and mines. 22 00:01:18,300 --> 00:01:22,433 He's not allowed to show his face or use his last name, for security reasons. 23 00:01:22,433 --> 00:01:26,666 CHRISTIAN: There's actually two more on that road before we get to the target building 24 00:01:26,666 --> 00:01:29,700 that have to be excavated and/or rendered safe. 25 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:34,700 MARCIA BIGGS: So, the first building you have to clear, you have got to get rid of the IEDs 26 00:01:35,566 --> 00:01:36,233 on the road to that building? 27 00:01:36,233 --> 00:01:37,466 CHRISTIAN: Yes. 28 00:01:37,466 --> 00:01:38,966 MARCIA BIGGS: It's a long process. 29 00:01:38,966 --> 00:01:41,466 CHRISTIAN: It is, but that's what makes it interesting. 30 00:01:41,466 --> 00:01:46,433 MARCIA BIGGS: The United States has sunk $30 million this year into clearing former ISIS 31 00:01:46,433 --> 00:01:48,866 territories all over Northern Iraq. 32 00:01:48,866 --> 00:01:53,866 Under this program, Janus has already cleared 727 buildings, removing 3,000 IEDs, which 33 00:01:56,300 --> 00:02:01,300 they say ISIS was producing on assembly lines at an industrial scale. 34 00:02:03,333 --> 00:02:06,133 But State Department officials and experts say the number of unexploded ordnance in Mosul 35 00:02:06,133 --> 00:02:09,266 itself is unprecedented. 36 00:02:09,266 --> 00:02:11,866 What's your first line of attack, in terms of trying to clear Mosul? 37 00:02:11,866 --> 00:02:16,866 CHRISTIAN: Our priority is more the community, rather than the individual, you know, infrastructure. 38 00:02:18,866 --> 00:02:22,733 You have got schools, power, sewer, water, so that the area can accept people back into 39 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:28,566 it. 40 00:02:28,566 --> 00:02:31,933 And then, once this stabilization phase is over, we can move into the individual homes, 41 00:02:31,933 --> 00:02:34,166 so that they can be safer. 42 00:02:34,166 --> 00:02:39,066 MARCIA BIGGS: Clearing Mosul is a process that they say could take years, even decades. 43 00:02:39,066 --> 00:02:44,066 So Janus is training local Iraqis to do the job, sending them out as a front-line search 44 00:02:45,900 --> 00:02:48,400 team, then investigating and removing any suspicious items themselves. 45 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:53,400 CHRISTIAN: We're not going to be here the whole time, so when we -- it's our time to 46 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,900 leave, they will have the capacity built from us, and the mentoring we have done, so that 47 00:02:58,900 --> 00:03:00,233 they can do it on their own. 48 00:03:00,233 --> 00:03:02,133 MARCIA BIGGS: How are they doing? 49 00:03:02,133 --> 00:03:05,566 CHRISTIAN: They're -- a lot of them are very apt to learn. 50 00:03:05,566 --> 00:03:06,566 They're quick. 51 00:03:06,566 --> 00:03:08,533 They're smart. 52 00:03:08,533 --> 00:03:11,866 MARCIA BIGGS: Fawzi al-Nabdi is the team leader for the Iraqi local partner. 53 00:03:11,866 --> 00:03:15,533 He's cleared mines all over Iraq for the last six years. 54 00:03:15,533 --> 00:03:17,933 CHRISTIAN: What you got? 55 00:03:17,933 --> 00:03:21,733 FAWZI AL-NABDI, Team Leader (through translator): We are ready for this, because it's my job 56 00:03:21,733 --> 00:03:23,433 and I love it. 57 00:03:23,433 --> 00:03:26,266 The Americans are here to complete our work and to help us. 58 00:03:26,266 --> 00:03:28,433 They have greater experience than we do. 59 00:03:28,433 --> 00:03:32,500 If we find any mines, we have to stop and they will investigate it and make a plan to 60 00:03:32,500 --> 00:03:34,533 remove it. 61 00:03:34,533 --> 00:03:38,433 MARCIA BIGGS: But he says Mosul is the biggest project he has ever seen, and we're told it 62 00:03:38,433 --> 00:03:42,533 could take at least a month to just get the campus cleared of mines. 63 00:03:42,533 --> 00:03:47,433 Only then can they start cleaning it up, so that students can resume classes, this itself 64 00:03:47,433 --> 00:03:50,633 a huge task. 65 00:03:50,633 --> 00:03:55,633 ISIS fighters closed the university back in 2014, and used it as a military base. 66 00:03:57,666 --> 00:04:01,700 As coalition forces pounded ISIS targets, this seat of higher learning became a battleground. 67 00:04:02,866 --> 00:04:05,633 Ghassan Alubaidy is the institute's dean. 68 00:04:05,633 --> 00:04:08,966 GHASSAN ALUBAIDY, Dean, Mosul Technical Institute (through translator): ISIS used our university 69 00:04:08,966 --> 00:04:11,166 to manufacture mines and bombs. 70 00:04:11,166 --> 00:04:14,166 For this reason, it was the target of airstrikes in the beginning. 71 00:04:14,166 --> 00:04:18,033 They struck the institute nine times, and they struck our workshops, too. 72 00:04:18,033 --> 00:04:20,533 Now we can't use them. 73 00:04:20,533 --> 00:04:24,166 MARCIA BIGGS: The former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Stephen 74 00:04:24,166 --> 00:04:29,166 Townsend, recently listed 81 locations where bombs were dropped, but had not yet exploded. 75 00:04:31,033 --> 00:04:35,400 Facilities used to make weapons were often on the list of high-value targets for the 76 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:37,033 coalition. 77 00:04:37,033 --> 00:04:40,466 So now those places are twice as likely to contain dangerous items. 78 00:04:40,466 --> 00:04:44,166 So, this was once a workshop for electrical engineering students. 79 00:04:44,166 --> 00:04:46,300 You can still see the lab tables here. 80 00:04:46,300 --> 00:04:48,833 It was hit by an airstrike in 2015. 81 00:04:48,833 --> 00:04:53,833 Afterwards, members of the university staff found bomb-making instructions among the rubble. 82 00:04:55,866 --> 00:04:58,866 This was likely an ISIS bomb-making factory, and judging by the crater, a high-value target. 83 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,100 Despite the damage, Dean Alubaidy says he will hold classes this fall in alternate buildings, 84 00:05:04,966 --> 00:05:07,400 until the campus is ready. 85 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,433 He's expecting registration to be in the thousands, students who lost three years of education 86 00:05:12,833 --> 00:05:15,066 during the fighting and don't want to lose another one. 87 00:05:15,066 --> 00:05:20,066 GHASSAN ALUBAIDY (through translator): On our Facebook pages, we found a great number 88 00:05:21,900 --> 00:05:23,900 of students posting that they were full of encouragement to come back. 89 00:05:23,900 --> 00:05:26,033 For us, it was unbelievable. 90 00:05:26,033 --> 00:05:29,500 We couldn't imagine it, to see how many students wanted to start again, how they were dreaming 91 00:05:29,500 --> 00:05:33,300 of the first day of classes, when they could sit in front of teachers again and start to 92 00:05:33,300 --> 00:05:34,966 live their lives again. 93 00:05:34,966 --> 00:05:39,633 MARCIA BIGGS: Next door, Mosul University has already started classes. 94 00:05:41,066 --> 00:05:43,033 Students even volunteered to help in the cleanup. 95 00:05:43,033 --> 00:05:47,933 But across the river, West Mosul was the site of ISIS' last stand and bore the brunt of 96 00:05:48,533 --> 00:05:50,600 the battle. 97 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:54,100 It's densely packed Old City, with its flattened buildings, is a challenge for mine-sweeping. 98 00:05:54,100 --> 00:05:57,966 FAWZI AL-NABDI (through translator): Most of the homes here were full of mines. 99 00:05:57,966 --> 00:06:02,966 And just here in front of us, a man with two kids came back to his home, and when he opened 100 00:06:04,066 --> 00:06:06,100 the door, the bomb killed him and his kids. 101 00:06:06,100 --> 00:06:10,633 MARCIA BIGGS: Ahmed Younes fled back in early July with only the clothes on his back. 102 00:06:12,666 --> 00:06:14,766 Residents have been virtually banned from returning to his neighborhood on the outskirts 103 00:06:14,766 --> 00:06:19,133 of the Old City, but Ahmed said he got special permission, in order to retrieve some personal 104 00:06:19,666 --> 00:06:21,566 items. 105 00:06:21,566 --> 00:06:24,533 AHMED YOUNES, Local Resident (through translator): We came on our own. 106 00:06:24,533 --> 00:06:29,266 We got permission to come, but they are not responsible if anything happens to us. 107 00:06:29,266 --> 00:06:34,200 MARCIA BIGGS: Right now, there is no plan to begin clearing the Old City or even to 108 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:36,700 determine how many mines there are. 109 00:06:36,700 --> 00:06:40,533 It is still out of bounds to anyone but the Iraqi security forces. 110 00:06:40,533 --> 00:06:45,533 So the Janus team is focusing on progress in the rest of the city, building by building, 111 00:06:46,133 --> 00:06:47,600 bomb by bomb. 112 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,333 CHRISTIAN: Whoever made this device had a set goal. 113 00:06:51,333 --> 00:06:54,266 And to allow him to win, people get hurt. 114 00:06:54,266 --> 00:06:58,333 So you kind of compete against him to be better than him to take it out before it can do any 115 00:06:58,333 --> 00:07:00,100 harm. 116 00:07:00,100 --> 00:07:01,333 MARCIA BIGGS: So, you feel like you're winning the battle against ISIS? 117 00:07:01,333 --> 00:07:03,333 CHRISTIAN: Yes, one IED at a time. 118 00:07:03,333 --> 00:07:07,033 MARCIA BIGGS: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Marcia Biggs in Mosul, Iraq. 119 00:07:07,033 --> 00:07:09,300 HARI SREENIVASAN: Tune in later. 120 00:07:09,300 --> 00:07:14,166 "Frontline"'s latest film, "Mosul," was on the ground filming the fight as it unfolded 121 00:07:14,166 --> 00:07:16,600 street by street and house by house. 122 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:18,200 That's tonight on PBS.