Thread by @WIRED

Two years ago, a US-led military coalition declared victory against ISIS in Mosul, liberating one of Iraq's largest cities after three years of occupation. While the eastern part of the city is on the road to recovery, west Mosul remains in ruins. 1/ wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

Like the rest of Iraq, Mosul suffers from mines and unexploded bombs left behind from decades of war. The US-led coalition dropped thousands more bombs on the city during its assault in 2016–2017, many of which didn't explode on impact. 2/ 📸: @CengizYar wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

ISIS also planted countless mines, IEDs and undetonated suicide belts during its last stand. Clearance teams, like this one, try and contain them and then remove them. 3/📸: @CengizYar wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

Last year, photojournalist Cengiz Yar partnered with the United Nations Mine Action Service to document the organization's mine- and ordnance-clearing operations. This is what he saw: 4/ 📸: @CengizYar wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

Wearing special protective gear, the photographer followed teams carefully disarming IEDs and unexploded bombs around the city. He also captured some of the risk-education classes that UNMAS conducts to educate Iraqi children about the dangers of buried bombs. 5/ 📸: @CengizYar

While the US led the military campaign that liberated Mosul, other countries are helping the UN pick up the pieces; Germany has provided the bulk of UNMAS' $84 million budget for its Iraq operations. 6/ 📸: @CengizYar
wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

The US government has spent nearly half a billion dollars in other efforts to get rid of landmines and other explosive war remnants in Iraq since 2003. 7/ 📸: @CengizYar wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

Although most refugees have returned to the city, around 300,000 are still displaced and many are living in camps outside Mosul because their homes were destroyed in the fighting. Read more here: 8/ wired.trib.al/cA3dcfZ

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