More than 500 buildings in Mosul's Old City need repair, U.N. says

The offensive to retake Mosul from Islamic State (IS) militant group has damaged thousands of structures in the historic Old City and destroyed nearly 500 buildings, satellite imagery released by the United Nations on Thursday showed.


Iraqi forces backed by the United States have pushed Islamic State into a 250-square-metre strip of territory along the Tigris River, prompting fighters to ramp up suicide bomb attacks, commanders said.

More than eight months of warfare have displaced 900,000 residents - about half the city's pre-war population - and killed thousands of civilians. The destruction is far greater than expected and is likely to cost billions of dollars to fix, according to the United Nations.
 [ahram.org.eg/Reuters]
7/7/17