The governor of Mosul, Iraq, says the former ISIS stronghold is now as safe as Washington, D.C. Speaking from his office inside a compound protected by a blast wall to a reporter from the Sunday Telegraph, Najim al-Jibouri said: “People don’t walk the streets in Washington or London at 3 a.m., but they do here… I tell you, Mosul is now as safe as America.” After being challenged by the reporter on the claim, al-Jibouri took the reporter to a “teeming” local market accompanied by a “token” entourage of 10 armed police. The report says that while it is true that terror attacks in Mosul itself are now relatively rare thanks to checkpoints ringing the city, attacks in the surrounding Nineveh Province are still common. On Dec. 13, the Iraqi army claimed to have killed 42 militants during raids on hideouts in caves south of Mosul.