‘When you’re in a war zone, drawing is amazingly therapeutic’

Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad’s sketches have helped him cope with reporting from the frontline. Now they will illustrate a book of his experiences• See more of Abdul-Ahad’s drawings here
Last July, as the Iraqi army was liberating Mosul after nine months of catastrophic fighting against Isis, the Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad found himself in a makeshift military post in the old city. The building was so badly damaged, it was hard to tell what it had been before