UNESCO seeks to help Iraq's Mosul rebuild cultural heritage

The UN cultural agency wants to help rebuild Mosul, the Islamic State terrorist group's former stronghold in Iraq, which has been left in tatters after years of fighting and artefact looting. To do so, the agency plans to start with culture and education, UNESCO director-general Audray Azoulay told the French broadcaster France Info on Monday.

"The education system, the universities, were taken hostage in order to sow hate," she said.

Representatives from the Iraqi government, civil society and UNESCO, as well as international experts, met in Paris on Monday to discuss the rebuilding of Iraq's second-biggest city, in the country's north.

Islamic State seized Mosul in mid-2014. The group demolished several historical sites in Iraq and is believed to have plundered Iraqi artefacts and sold them in order to finance its operations.

The fight to take back Mosul lasted from mid-October 2016 to early July 2017, with urban warfare taking its toll on the city. Azoulay spoke of a field of ruins.  The Oxfam aid group estimates that in Mosul's densely populated old town alone, over 3,000 houses, schools and business were destroyed.    (dpa)