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The Iraqi forces, with help from a U.S.-led coalition, ended the occupation in Badush, located 10 moles northwest of Mosul. Ironically, that’s the town ISIS first captured on June 6, 2014, on its mission to take Mosul.
While the victory is something to celebrate, it is also bittersweet. ISIS has obliterated the large city into nothing. CNN continued:
Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that there was no time to waste in beginning social and physical reconstruction.
“The first challenge facing the Iraqi government and international organizations is to provide basic necessities of life for more than 400,000 Iraqis who have been displaced from the western part of Mosul, which mostly lies in ruins,” Gerges told CNN.
He estimated that rebuilding the Old City alone would cost $1 billion.
The terrorist group also ran out the citizens or captured them for slavery. Former residents have traveled back to Mosul to rebuild their lives. CNN reporters witnessed “signs of life returning to normal — traffic on the roads and chickens being sold in makeshift markets.”
The ISIS threat has not completely left Mosul or the surrounding towns. The terrorist group still holds Tal Afar, which is only 40 miles away from Mosul. From the BBC:
Forces from the Mosul battle are already being dispatched to Tal Afar to begin the clearance of that city. Covering less than one-eighth the surface area of Mosul, Tal Afar is a long-term stronghold of IS and may still require weeks or months of fighting to liberate.
Some 290km to the south-west of Mosul, IS also holds a string of towns in Anbar province along the Iraqi portion of the River Euphrates.
Collectively known as al-Qaim, these towns are closely connected to the remaining IS strongholds in the Euphrates valley in Syria, such as Raqqa and Deir al-Zour.