MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Three weeks of artillery and airstrikes damaged or destroyed nearly a third of Mosul’s Old City, according to a U.N. survey, a sign of the ferocity of the fight to uproot the Islamic State group from the Iraqi city.
Iraq’s prime minister this week declared victory in Mosul. But nearly nine months of warfare destroyed large swaths of the city, particularly in western Mosul. Without a swift campaign to rebuild, aid and rights groups warn the current humanitarian crisis will balloon and resentment will likely give way to extremism, undermining the victory.
The survey of satellite imagery by U.N. Habitat found that more than 5,000 of the approximately 16,000 residential buildings in the historic Old City were damaged or destroyed between June 16 and July 8.
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