Article content continued

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

ISIS backed down and left, said the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

But residents are certain ISIS will try again. Over the past two weeks, the extremists ruling Iraq’s second largest city have shrugged off previous restraint and embarked on a brutal campaign to purge Mosul of anything that challenges their radical interpretation of Islam, even Muslim shrines that in their iconoclastic fervour they condemn as apostasy.

The scene on Saturday was a startling show of bravery against a group that has shown little compunction against killing anyone who resists it. It reflects the horror among some residents over what has become of their beloved city.

“The bombing of shrines … has nothing to do with Islam,” Abu Abaida, 44, a government employee, said by phone from the city. “They are erasing the culture and history of Mosul.”

When fighters from ISIS first swept into in Mosul in June, they proclaimed themselves the mainly Sunni city’s saviour from the Shiite-led Iraqi government in Baghdad. Their first priority was to rebuild infrastructure and provide services like garbage collection that the government had neglected.

They held off from implementing their strict version of Islamic law, urging modesty for women but doing little to enforce it and generally leaving alone the Christian population that had not already fled.

The aim, it seemed, was to avoid alienating a Sunni community whose support they needed.