After Fall of ISIS, Iraq’s Second-Largest City Picks Up the Pieces
About a mile away, at the Sharqiya Secondary School, Mr. Saleh, the principal, is using the challenge of rebuilding as a teachable moment, reflecting the motto
that hangs on one of the school’s old stone walls: "The misfortunes of some can be turned into an advantage for others." Since August, Mr. Saleh has been fielding calls from dozens of teachers and hundreds of parents pleading to resume classes.
People really are motivated to help one another." Across the river, in the Old City, the few residents
lucky enough to have their homes still standing say they also are invigorated by community spirit.
10, 2017
MOSUL, Iraq — In the heat of the late summer sun, weeks after the end of one of the largest urban battles since World War II, a high
school principal trekked from his home in east Mosul to the west bank of the Tigris River to confront the ruins of his life’s work.
It’s the spirit of Mosul." For three years, this metropolis of three million people,
Iraq’s second-largest city, lived under the harsh rule of the Islamic State.
University administrators say they have no idea how to replace the millions of books from their library, a repository for old manuscripts and research materials,
that were burned by the Islamic State, or hundreds of thousands of dollars in science equipment.
Professor Intisar Abdel Rada, who has taught accounting for 18 years, helped supervise a group of professors
and students who raised money to repair ceilings and electrical wiring in her department’s classrooms, and cleaned and painted lecture halls, work that enabled classes to resume last month.
Arabic said that We want to give the opportunity for our neighbors to breathe fresh air after defeating Daesh,
