Step inside an ISIS prison in the terror group's shrinking Iraqi stronghold

pulse

June 7, 2017 6:05 PM

Despite what it looks like outside, the prison had all the same characteristics of a state-run facility.

An Iraqi soldier inside an office of the prison.

US-backed forces in Iraq are on the brink of taking back Mosul from ISIS.

The terror group's remaining militants in the city have sealed off the and are making their last stand.

The rest of the city has been liberated, giving journalists and US-backed forces a glimpse into what life was like under the Islamic State's rule.

One photographer recently visited an ISIS prison in the western part of the city, which had been built in an ordinary home to camouflage it among other houses. This is what he saw:

This is the outside of the prison, where soldiers from the Iraqi Army's 9th Armored Division stand guard.

Prisoners would have their possessions and documents taken away when they arrived and given back if released.

Here are some articles of clothing left behind by ISIS fighters.

Another shot of the ISIS office.

Some old food left on a kitchen table inside the compound.

A picture of a girl seen on a table in one of the offices.

Here are materials ISIS fighters used to fashion homemade bombs.

This is one of the completed homemade bombs being held by an Iraqi soldier.

ISIS fighters used these screens to monitor the prisoners.

This steel gate sealed off the part of the compound where the cells were.

This is one of the cameras inside the cells that was linked to the guards' monitors. "This is to keep the prisoners subdued," an Iraqi military officer said.

Iraqi soldiers and Yazidis, a religious community that ISIS considered to be devil-worshippers, were kept in this cell.

Here is the inside of one of the men's cells, with the shadow of an Iraqi soldier opening the gate against the wall.

Here is one of the women's cells.

This is another men's cell. "Here they kept 'violators'" of their laws, an Iraqi officer said. "But they are the real violators."

pulse