Mosul

He saw the gloriously skewed al-Hadba minaret, known as the "hunchback", which had been emblematic of Mosul for hundreds of years, in ruins.

A U.S.-spearheaded military coalition freed Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, from the group’s grip in 2017, and pursued its remnants into eastern Syria.

"A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading towards Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit," he says.

Marines used the same rockets in coordination with U.S. airstrikes to devastate Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, in 2017.

That base is along a Syrian highway leading into Iraq and ultimately Mosul, once a prominent base of the Islamic State group.