ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mosul is rebuilding 546 homes destroyed during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS), restoring life to some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods that were severely damaged.
Tahsin al-Na’imi, a resident of al-Maidan neighborhood, is one of those waiting for his home to be rebuilt. His family has lived there for centuries and still holds property deeds from the Ottoman era.
“My sweetest memories were in this house. All my brothers used to work together. We owned two grocery stores and a small commercial factory, and even a warehouse inside the house. All of this is gone, ended. Since then, I’ve been out of work for seven years,” Na’imi told Rudaw on Thursday.
His home is included in the reconstruction project, but he expressed concern that the new design does not reflect its original character.
“The thing they cancelled is the basement. The basement ran the entire length of the house and was very cool, all empty space. They removed the basement from this entire area, and its place was excavated and built upon. The old construction was better,” he said.
Authorities estimate that about seven percent of the homes slated for reconstruction have been completed to date.
“The project includes two phases and involves constructing 546 houses. We have begun building the residential houses, where approximately 60 houses have been completed in various segments so far,” said supervising engineer Ali Nizar.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was the last stronghold of ISIS in the country and suffered massive destruction during the battle to retake the city. Victory was declared in the city in July 2017.
One of the landmarks that was destroyed in the war was the historic al-Nuri mosque. It was reopened on Monday after being rebuilt by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with $50.4 million in funding from the United Arab Emirates.
On July 4, 2014, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate from the mosque’s pulpit. Both the mosque and its iconic leaning minaret, al-Hadba, were central to Mosul’s skyline for more than 850 years and remain symbols of the city. The minaret appears on Iraq’s 10,000-dinar banknote. ISIS militants destroyed the site in 2017 as Iraqi forces closed in during the battle for Mosul.
ISIS seized large areas of Iraq in 2014 but was declared territorially defeated in 2017 after Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by a US-led coalition, recaptured its final strongholds.
Kawa Omar contributed to this article.
