Macron visits Mosul

Mosul, Iraq: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday visited the Islamic State jihadist group’s former Iraqi stronghold Mosul, a day after vowing to keep troops in the country.

In a speech at the devastated city’s Church of Our Lady of the Hour, which the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO is working to restore, Macron urged Iraq’s religious communities to "work together" to rebuild the country.

"We will bring back a (French) consulate and schools," he pledged, while criticising the pace of reconstruction in Mosul, where IS fought its last urban battle, as "too slow". The mainly Muslim city was recaptured from IS in 2017 after three years. Only 30-40 percent of its health facilities have so far been restored, according to a local official.

Macron made the commitment for France to stay put in Iraq during a regional summit in Baghdad largely devoted to the fight against terrorism and the impact of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan as the US withdraws.