The Iraqi Prime Minister celebrates with the orphans of Mosul the fifth anniversary of the liberation of the city

MADRID, 10 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Mostafa al-Kazemi, has celebrated with the orphaned children of Mosul the fifth anniversary of the liberation of the second largest city in the country, captured by the Islamic State in 2014, at the beginning of one of the most terrifying periods experienced by the population.

Al Kazemi commemorated this past Saturday the Eid al Adha holiday with two hundred "children of the martyrs of Mosul", whom he invited to a restaurant in the city of restaurants in the city. There, the prime minister applauded the children and their families, whom he described as "the pillar of the country and the builders of its future," according to the official INA news agency.

"This government is going to take care of you, as children of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives," added the Iraqi prime minister.

Al Kazemi has also visited the city's university, as well as several infrastructure and reconstruction projects, such as the emblematic Al Nuri Mosque, blown up five years ago by the jihadists.

The Umayyad temple, dating from the 12th century, was the scene of the proclamation of the Islamic State Caliphate in 2014, in an act led by its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. However, it was destroyed three years later by the Islamic State itself before the advance of the Iraqi government forces that finally put an end to the territorial domination and to the Caliphate itself in the following months.

Hundreds of thousands of people had to flee their homes before the advance of the Islamic State, which decided to raze the city completely during the culmination of its conquest, on July 10, 2014, in the beginning of three years of a fundamentalist regime plagued by executions, forced displacement, torture, and virtually the entire spectrum of abuses.

NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders have celebrated this anniversary as a positive stage in the reconstruction of a city that "has undergone radical changes in the last five years", according to Sahir Dawood, an MSF health promoter in the city.

"The first time I went back, right after the end of the battle, it felt like a ghost town. I looked to my right, to my left, and all I saw was rubble, destroyed buildings and empty streets, with some exhausted people here and there. But now, when I go through the city, I see people working and going out. I see buildings standing, streetlights on at night," he says.

Today, the bridges that were destroyed during the war have been reopened and west and east Mosul have been reconnected. In the last five years, people living in Mosul have seen the streets change, as barriers and checkpoints have been gradually removed, a sign of increased security.