Iraqis find healing at spa near Mosul after ISIS massacres

HAMAM AL-ALIL -- A mineral spa in northern Iraq is regaining popularity as renovation work has brought back visitors to an area where the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) once carried out mass executions.

Local resident Hisham Khaled often visited the Hamam al-Alil baths as a child with his father, but since the facility's restoration, he comes alone.

His father, a policeman, was executed near the baths by ISIS in 2016.

Located on the west bank of the Tigris river, southeast of Mosul, Hamam al-Alil built a solid reputation over decades with its therapeutic sulphurous waters.

But the spa and surrounding village, which shares the same name, are now also known for massacres committed by ISIS during its occupation of the area.

"I lost the people who were dearest to me," says the 21-year-old father of twins, sitting shirtless near the spa's circular pool.

His father, a police colonel, was among hundreds of local officers rounded up and executed by ISIS. Their bodies were discovered in November 2016 in a mass grave near the College of Agriculture.

"It included the remains of about 70 bodies, mostly scattered, of citizens who were former members of the army and police, as well as other civilians," Ninawa Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Firas Bashar Sabri said at the time.

"Some residents were able to identify their slain children themselves, through their belongings," he said.

"It pains my heart," Khaled said. "My father and I used to come to the baths together. Now he's gone, and I've come here alone."

A return to normality

Many area residents are frustrated at the slow pace of reconstruction, five years after ISIS was driven out.

But last month's reopening of the baths, on the banks of the Tigris river, contributes to a return to normality, even if the scars of conflict remain.

Khaled is now a masseur at the spa and bathes there regularly. The sulphur-rich waters have cured him of an allergy and dermatological problems, he says.

In its newly tiled rooms, men and children enjoy a moment of therapeutic relaxation for 5,000 IQD ($3).

They fill tubs with green, hot spring water, pouring it over their heads and then vigorously rubbing their bodies -- despite the nauseating smell characteristic of sulphur.

An old man exits his wheelchair and bathes in the waters, doing stretching exercises with his arms.

The resort, built in 1984, accommodates between 75 and 100 people, with men and women using separate areas.

On surrounding sidewalks, makeshift stalls sell plastic bottles filled with sulphurous mud.

Salam Adel Hassan has made the trip from Baghdad and says he first visited the spa 20 years ago.

"The spa was very rudimentary, not like now. The renovations are a success, I'm delighted," the 30-year-old says with a smile.

"My brother has psoriasis. He couldn't come. I'm going to take him water and mud," he says.

After the defeat of ISIS in 2017, the baths remained popular although the building had fallen into disrepair, with chipped tiles and broken windows.

In 2019, authorities undertook renovation work costing $500,000.

Construction materials were carefully selected to resist wear and oxidation caused by sulphurous waters, says Ahmed Aziz Ahmed, an employee at the spa.

"The day after the inauguration, we began to receive groups of visitors from all the provinces" of Iraq, he says.

Families originally from Mosul but now living abroad have come, as have British and German tourists, he adds.

'Bitter life' under ISIS

Iraqi forces retook Hamam al-Alil from ISIS on November 7, 2016, scoring a key victory on the southern front of the offensive to wrest back Mosul.

In the months prior, Hamam al-Alil residents had staged an uprising against the extremist group, stepping up the number of retaliatory attacks they carried out after Iraqi forces liberated al-Qayyara, to the district's south.

In late 2016, months before being driven out of Mosul by the Iraqi army and international coalition, ISIS rounded up and executed hundreds of people.

The bodies of some of the victims were initially found dumped in the open among garbage, leading investigators to the mass grave estimated to hold "the bodies of at least 300 former local police officers", Human Rights Watch said.

ISIS "worked at night, they executed them and buried them with a bulldozer", explains Ahmed, the spa employee.

In the immediate aftermath of Hamam al-Alil's liberation, residents told Al-Mashareq's sister website, Diyaruna, of the horrors they had experienced under ISIS.

Former policeman Majid Shakur said he lived a "bitter life" under ISIS, moving from one place to another for fear of persecution.

"I had to spend days in the open without food or drink, and sometimes I would hide in a hole I dug in the house of one of my relatives," he said.

"I went through moments where I wished for death," he said, adding that ISIS gunmen were detaining people and torturing them to death in prisons.

"ISIS turned government offices in our sector into detention centres where various forms of torture were practiced," Hamam al-Alil resident Laith Mohammed said.

Residents heard that ISIS had thrown many young men from the town into these prisons under various pretexts, he said, particularly former security personnel whom the group had accused of collaborating with the government.

"Some of the victims were crucified on electricity poles in the city centre, killed by firing squad or slaughtered by knife," he said.

"The fate of anyone trying to bury them was death," he added. "We could see dogs eating the corpses."

Other mass graves have been discovered in the area, among them al-Khasfa mass grave, where ISIS is believed to have dumped thousands of bodies.

DNA testing is still under way to identify the bodies of the group's victims.