BAGHDAD: Iraqi armed forces on Thursday opened a new front against Daesh in Mosul, attacking the militants’ enclave in the city from the northwest, a military commander told Reuters.
Mosul’s wrecked roads, bridges and broader economy will take at least five years to repair and need billions of dollars of development that Iraq’s government will struggle to afford, officials returning to the battle-scarred city said.

The airport, railway station and university were all destroyed in the long fight to dislodge Daesh militants from their main Iraqi stronghold.

Iraqi government forces backed by a US-led coalition have now retaken the eastern half of the city — letting regional councilors return for the first time in 2-1/2 years to survey the damage.

“After Mosul is fully liberated, we need a working plan to restore things to the way they were before 2014 when Islamic State took over,” Noureldin Qablan, deputy chairman of the council covering the surrounding Nineveh province, told Reuters.