Destruction in the Old City of Mosul. Most of its narrow streets are impassable, strewn with debris and destroyed vehicles. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)
VOA: Returnees to Old Mosul Find Little Besides Rubble, Lingering Danger
MOSUL, IRAQ — “All you can hear at night is the sound of broken doors flapping in the wind,” says Abd Elaam, a 50-year-old furniture maker. “Even soldiers stay indoors after dark.”
Elaam is currently one of the very few civilians living in Old Mosul, an ancient neighborhood shattered by the battle to recapture the city from Islamic State militants. Like many families that survived IS rule, he says, his resources are completely exhausted by the war and he has nowhere else to go.
Other families trickle in by day, looking to repair their broken homes or recover the bodies of their dead loved ones. But even during daylight hours, the neighborhood is dangerous, riddled with bombs and an unknown number of militants hiding out in the vast network of tunnels under the tightly-packed buildings and piles of rubble. The level of destruction has been compared to World War II Dresden.
Read more ....
Update: After victory over ISIS, Mosul discovers the cost: Homes were turned into graves (Washington Post)
WNU Editor: It is going to decade for this part of Mosul to be rebuilt .... but the scars are going to last for generations.
