Mosul, Ben Mckelvey
Mosul, Ben Mckelvey
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

Mosul
Australia's secret war inside the ISIS caliphate

Author: Ben Mckelvey

Narrator: Nick Farnell

Unabridged: 10 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2020


Synopsis

From the best-selling author of The Commando and Born to Fight comes a fascinating investigation of modern warfare that combines methodical research and the fast-paced action of battle with the personal stories of the combatants on both sides of the line.

Taking us from the suburbs of western Sydney and Australia's military army bases, to the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, this is a remarkable book that reveals the as-yet untold story of the battle for Mosul and the secret involvement of Australians on both sides of the war - both our Commandos and Australian ISIS fighters.

Mosul details the rise of ISIS influence in Australia, the Iran and Australia allegiance to fight Daesh and shows what led up to the battle and the ramifications that are still being felt at home - by our soldiers and the victims of that war.

Ben Mckelvey has extraordinary access to SOOCOMD/2COMMANDO units - the most decorated modern Australian fighting unit; ISOF - Iraq's premier fighters; Yazidis women who had been slaves of ISIS; returned Commandos and their devastated families, and explains how petty criminals in Western Sydney became some of our worst jihadists who took their families to Iraq to fight for ISIS. Focusing on the stories of key figures like 2 Commando's Ian Turner and one of Australia's most infamous Jihadist, Khaled Sharrouf, Mckelvey takes us the heart of this brutal battle and brings history to life in an honest, thoughtful and compelling examination of modern warfare.

A must-read for anyone interested in modern military history.

About Ben Mckelvey

Ben Mckelvey is an author, journalist and editor. Ben's books have won the Australian Independent Book Award for non-fiction, an Australian Book Industry Award and the Nib Military History Prize and they have been shortlisted in the Victorian and Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and for the Les Carlyon Literary Prize. Ben has been the editor of Mr Jones, Sports&Style and Juice magazines and worked at the Sydney Morning Herald as a Senior Feature Writer. As a freelance writer, Ben has been embedded with the ADF in East Timor and Iraq, and has worked independently in Iran, Syria and Afghanistan.


Reviews

3.25 Stars — This was almost an accidental read, cleaning out a litany of books in my unpacked boxes I grabbed it and before I knew it, I was halfway through the darn thing. Whilst the writing is on the more basic side, the content is nonetheless visceral, insightful & at times, downright batshit-cra......more

Goodreads review by Ben

Read this book perhaps fifty times and even wrote it once.......more

Goodreads review by Aaron

Several months after the end of ADF combat operations in Afghanistan in late 2013, a new and more violent terrorist threat emerged from the turmoil of the Syrian Civil War to find fertile ground in the ongoing tension and violence of neighboring Iraq. Known as al-Dawlah al-Islamiya (ISIS in English)......more

Goodreads review by Jack

Saw this book published and went to the shops straight away. Couldn’t put it down! Cheers Ben, it was eye opening and fantastic!......more

Goodreads review by John

This book is a great read. Without having read anything about it apart from the blurbs on the cover, I was a bit skeptical about this book by Ben McKelvey. I confess that I thought that it might have been of the "disadvantaged kid joins army, passes special forces selection and makes a name for hims......more