国际英语新闻:Feature: People in Mosul yearn for better life in 2020

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- As the new year is around the corner, residents in Mosul, northern Iraq, are yearning for a better life in 2020.

Two years after Iraq declared full liberation of the city from the Islamic State (IS), life is getting back to normal in the area, yet at a snail's pace.

Ali Saadi, a 44-year-old butcher, said that he would have to keep working hard in 2020 in order to fulfill his wishes.

"My wishes for the New Year is to finish rebuilding my destroyed house and to see my 17-year-old daughter able to walk again after being injured in the battles," Saadi said, standing near his under-construction house in the devastated neighborhood of the old city center in western Mosul.

Saadi also hoped that his old neighborhood can be rebuilt and neighbors could return to their homes to live together again as their ancestors had been doing for hundreds of years.

Also in the devastated old city center, Bashar Hazim, in his 40s, said, "My wish for 2020 is to see life flourishing again in Mosul, particularly in our historic markets and all the houses of the old city center, which represents the heritage and identity of Mosul."

At the old al-Attareen market, which has been under reconstruction during the past three months, Hashim Walid, a restaurant owner, said, "The market is now clean and is ready to receive its people back."

Walid's restaurant was damaged and abandoned during the battles.

At another house in the ruins of the old city center, Firas Sabah told Xinhua that he hoped his 9-year-old daughter Zainab could get healed as she had her spine and pelvis broken at a bombing during the battles.

"My little daughter cannot move, and I wish she can get some treatment and be able to move," Sabah said.

He also wished that people in the old city center could have a rest as they have suffered a lot during the occupation of the IS group and the battles to free Mosul.

"There are many killed or wounded," Sabah said with tears in his eyes. "Many of the residents are living in refugee camps. People are tired."

Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, witnessed one of the fiercest battles as the IS extremists holed up in the narrow alleys of the old city center, where they booby-trapped buildings and planted a large number of roadside bombs.

In July, 2017, the Iraqi government announced the liberation of the heavily populated city after nearly nine months of fierce fighting and heavy bombardment.

The battles killed thousands of people and caused large-scale devastation of the city, according to the provincial government.

However, the residents in Mosul have never lost hope in rebuilding their beloved home city.

Iraqi experts estimated that Mosul needs over 50 billion U.S. dollars for reconstruction and for the return of the displaced people.

Bandar al-Ugaidi, a resident and a civil society activist, said, "I wish 2020 to be the year of rapid and tangible reconstruction, and the year of return of the displaced people."

In December 2017, the Iraqi government declared that the IS was expelled from its last foothold in Iraq, giving people hope for a better life in the liberated areas.