A member of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitaries sits facing a sinkhole near the village of Athbah, Iraq, on Feb. 26. (Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)The horror stories about the Islamic State’s mass killings at a cavernous hole in the desert near Mosul became legendary over the years. [Away from Iraq’s front lines, the Islamic State is creeping back in]Meanwhile, authorities are overwhelmed. But it was not until after the Islamic State took control of Mosul in July 2014 that it started being used on an industrial scale. The smell might have been what led the Islamic State tofill the hole in mid-2015.

Source: Washington Post March 02, 2017 17:56 UTC