Iraqi city still suffering 5 months after Islamic State was run out

HAMDANIYA, IRAQ >> Bahaa Franshaw spikes pieces of meat onto a skewer, ready to sell to the passing trade. His potential customers include civilians coming through Hamdaniya from Mosul to escape the fighting there. Heading toward Mosul are military reinforcements and non-governmental organization workers trying to help get the war-torn city back on its feet.

Five months on from its capture by Iraqi troops, Hamdaniya — which lies between Irbil and Mosul — stands as a near-deserted example of the immense task of reconstruction facing authorities not only in this area but others after clearing out Islamic State group fighters.

One of the few who have returned to Hamdaniya, whose Christian majority population once numbered around 70,000, the 46-year-old Franshaw hopes to revive the farm he had to leave behind, though he is more skeptical of the country’s prospects as a whole.

“I want Iraq to come back as it was before, but it will not happen,” he said.

IS militants who were driven from the town retreated to Mosul from where they continue their fight against the Iraqi military. There are no official numbers on the pre-war residents who have returned to Hamdaniya, but Franshaw says he’d be surprised if more than a hundred have returned. They are in addition to the police recruits who are being trained here and military who have taken up positions in the town.

Many of Hamdaniya’s buildings have been destroyed. Between the coalition airstrikes, Iraqi artillery and IS forces blowing up the rest, several streets have been reduced to a pile of rubble.

While Franshaw holds out hope of one day reviving his farm, for now he has reinvented himself by opening a kebab shop to serve the passing trade. The town lacks in basics. There is no water and the power comes from the generators. Franshaw’s restaurant works off water tanks, and the plumbing is improvised and breaks down frequently.

“It’s difficult to come back because there is nothing to come back for,” Franshaw says.