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This is Kanisa, an area of West Mosul liberated in May. As of early June 2017, signs of civilian life returning are evident. Municipal bulldozers work to clear rubble from the streets, people are painting over the bullet holes in their shop walls and opening for business and there's a busy air of hustle and bustle in some streets. Market stalls and traffic jams, mopeds and children playing, taxis everywhere.
Life goes on, though it is somewhat surreal to see it do so amid such destruction and within easy earshot and view of the frontline. Great plumes of airstrike and suicide vehicle smoke regularly cloud the city scape, sudden changes in air pressure preceding their ground trembling booms. And clusters of mortar guns crop up in vacant lots, crouched in rows like tripedal insects gazing at the white hot sun. The sounds of their outgoing rounds BOOM-shoooooom out at intervals as they bridge the gap between freedom and ISIS occupied territory.
