Bags of damaged money found in Mosul bank

MOSUL, Iraq - More than four years after Mosul’s liberation from the Islamic State (ISIS), a large amount of damaged money was found in the city’s branch of the Iraqi Central Bank this week. 

The bank recently decided to dig under the ground of the damaged building to see if ISIS had planted any improvised explosive devices but instead found bags of damaged money. 

“We have begun renovating buildings. We have removed the damaged parts and rubble. We later requested a force from the Operations Command to check the building and detect security dangers,” Hussein Lazim, manager of the bank, told Rudaw on Wednesday. 

“We expected ISIS to plant explosives in the building before leaving. A committee was formed which opened the treasury yesterday morning with the presence of all members of the committee. We did not expect [to find] money,” he added. 

The full amount is unknown but 175 bags of money were found. They were filled with 250 IQD and 1000 IQD notes.

ISIS controlled gained control of Mosul in 2014 but Iraqi forces were able to gain hold of it again in 2017. Many of the damaged buildings have not been renovated. 

Ali Abu Bakir is an employee of the bank. He is part of the team that found the money. 

“We have been working on it since 7:30am and the water level has reached our necks. We take out bags of damaged notes of money by swimming,” he said. 

The money had been buried by the bank management before ISIS took control of the city. It is now unusable and will later be turned into waste.

Reporting by Naif Ramazan