MOSUL, Iraq — “It’s better than it was,” a shoe salesman in a small outdoor market on the outskirts of east Mosul said, carefully choosing his words. Ashraf Shahab’s stand is full of shoes from Turkey and Syria, but there are hardly any customers. Yet things are better than during the occupation by the Islamic State (IS), or Daesh, as it is called locally.
“Then, there were hardly any goods, as the roads to Mosul were closed,” Shahab said. “The situation was terrible, and people had to sell even their clothes to be able to eat.”
