Battle for Mosul: thousands of children in recaptured east go back to school

Battle for Mosul: thousands of children in recaptured east go back to school

MOSUL: -- Thousands of children in Iraq are heading back to school in eastern areas of Mosul, recently cleared from ISIL control.

30 schools in the northern Iraqi city are said to have opened this week allowing some 16,000 students to resume their studies.

During the two and a half years under the militants, a vast majority of students dropped out.

Describing the teaching methods under ISIL, one child said: ‘‘They taught us things like one bullet plus one bullet equals two bullets and one bomb plus one bomb… Their curriculum was very different.’‘

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday that government forces had taken full control of eastern Mosul, though deadly pockets of resistance were still reported.

He also confirmed that President Trump had offered extra military assistance to retake the city. Trump has made the fight against ISIL a foreign policy priority.

Meanwhile, the UN says it’s ‘‘racing against the clock’‘ to prepare emergency aid for hundreds of thousands of endangered civilians in Mosul.

The Iraqi army is gearing up to launch a major offensive on the western half of the city and there are fears they could get caught in the crossfire.

 

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