Mosul’s Destroyed Bridges: A Major Challenge for Residents

Displaced people who fled ISIS militants, cross the bridge in Al-Muthanna neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Displaced people who fled ISIS militants, cross the bridge in Al-Muthanna neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
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Mosul’s Destroyed Bridges: A Major Challenge for Residents

Displaced people who fled ISIS militants, cross the bridge in Al-Muthanna neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Displaced people who fled ISIS militants, cross the bridge in Al-Muthanna neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Few minutes are enough for student Ahmad Meyssar to cross the bridge over Tigris river in Mosul to reach his university, however, it takes him now over two hours to cover the distance after the bridge had been destroyed following the nine-month operation to retake the city from ISIS.

Iraq's second-largest city Nineveh, "90 percent" of the 70 bridges have been totally or partially destroyed, Marwan Abderrazaq from the local roads department told Agence-France Presse.

Some of Mosul's bridges were blown up by ISIS, while the others were destroyed by government forces and the firepower of a US-led coalition backing them up. A large number of the city's infrastructure, especially on the western side, has been fully destroyed following the liberation operations after ISIS controlled the city in June 2014.

Five months had passed since Mosul had been liberated, millions of residents in Mosul are still suffering following the disappearance of the bridges they used to rely on.

However now, thanks to support from the World Bank and United Nations, two temporary bridges have gone up in Mosul and three more are under construction.

Abderrazaq stated that a German team arrived in the governorate to assess the damages and set the plans to reconstruct Nineveh's seven bridges. Because of this team, student Meyssar now has a road to his university. But the limited options still mean that he still face major delays.

Meyssar stated that "to be sure of being on time for the start of lessons at university at eight in the morning," he needs to leave his home "at around 5:30 or six."

Hundreds of cars lined up as they queued to reach the other side on a recent morning, forming a traffic jam that stretched for several kilometers.

Fathiya Sobhi, 44, mother of two, stated that she carries one of her children on her shoulders to reach the other side of the river which takes her half an hour. She is making the crossing by foot as she "cannot afford the taxi fare" across.

The jams and delays crossing the river have forced taxi driver Yahya Ahmed, 37, to change the way he works. He has decided that from now on he is going to stick to the eastern side of the river where he lives and will no longer take passengers to the other bank.

Ahmed, father of six, stated that before citizens used to cross from one side to the other without thinking about it.

"But now it takes two-and-a-half hours so I just work on one side," added Ahmed.

Engineer Hussein Nabil, 40, who works in rebuilding the iron bridge, known as the "Old Bridge", says the restoration operations will take up to six months.

Nabil says the metallic structure, which ran across the center of Mosul since it was built in 1934, will be accessible to cars as of August meaning that it requires over a year after Baghdad announced Mosul's "liberation".



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.