article: But amid the chaos and terror, the city's university has remained open throughout most of this time. This has raised questions about whether it has been kept open to provide a facade of normality, or whether it has been used as a technical facility to develop weapons, including for chemical warfare. But there are clandestine networks of Mosul students and academics who have wanted the rest of the world to know what happens in a university under IS control and in the deteriorating conditions of their city. They have been helped by the New York-based Scholar Rescue Fund, part of the Institute of International Education, which once rescued academics in Europe from the Nazis. On condition of anonymity, they describe a city of violence and fear, with public executions, vice police patrols, persecution, air raids, worsening shortages and bans on communication. Day-to-day life overlaps with horrific displays of control. In one account, someone coming home from a shopping trip in Mosul was stopped by IS members and forced, along with other passers-by, to witness the "horrifying and disturbing" spectacle of a public beheading. There is also danger from coalition air raids, with 32 air strikes in or around Mosul last week. "Life under Isil [another name for IS] has one meaning - absolute fear," according to one Mosul source. There is a culture of spying, betrayal, blackmail, regular "humiliations" and deadly consequences. "It is extremely easy for them to kill anyone. Their courts can come to a judgement in a few minutes and the execution will take place immediately." "Some students worked with them and started spying on us," said sources who saw the University of Mosul being taken over by IS in June 2014. Subjects such as literature and philosophy were suspended and anything seen as symbolising opposition to their religious ideology was attacked. "They burned the books in the central library, then they demolished the archaeological sites." "Right from the beginning, Isis [another name for IS] thought that any book that doesn't advance Islam is meaningless and worthless." Any academics with links to the west or loyal to the Iraqi government "all lost their lives". The university switched to subjects promoting the new regime's war effort, with foreign fighters using some of the buildings for accommodation. Physical sciences became a priority and the IS regime encouraged training in medicine, pharmacy, nursing and dentistry, filling gaps left by doctors who had fled the city. Languages have been encouraged - both as a way of working with foreign fighters and supporting propaganda efforts. Even sports and exercise were re-invented as a form of jihadist training, with military-style lessons. Mosul is a city under siege, with Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army closing in. Sources say the response of IS has been to exert an increasingly aggressive control over communication and movement. "They are placing more and more strict rules on internet access. They are knocking door to door, surveying each house, and asking to copy documents and ID cards to see how these belong to internet accounts. "So whenever they spot
summary: Almost exactly two years ago, Iraq's second biggest city, Mosul, was overrun by the forces of so-called Islamic State (IS).