Saddam's palaces in Mosul stand witness to decades of conflict

Record ID: 1715901

  • Title: Saddam's palaces in Mosul stand witness to decades of conflict
  • Date: 17th March 2023
  • Summary: MOSUL, IRAQ (MARCH 6, 2023) (REUTERS) MOSUL-BASED CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVIST, SAAD AL-WAZZAN, WALKING OUT OF BADLY DAMAGED SO-CALLED LAKE PALACE DATING BACK TO SADDAM HUSSEIN ERA WHICH USED TO OVERLOOK ARTIFICIAL LAKE CEILING AND PART OF PALACE'S ENTRANCE ARABIC INITIALS OF SADDAM HUSSEIN ENGRAVED ON WALL PALACE ENTRANCE WAZZAN WALKING INSIDE PALACE'S DAMAGED INTERIOR AND TOUCHING ENGRAVING ON WALL DAMAGED INTERIOR OF PALACE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOSUL-BASED CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVIST, SAAD AL-WAZZAN, SAYING: "Palaces were built in many provinces and there are palaces that were reportedly not announced as we hear in social media websites and some reports. We can say that here in Mosul, with its presidential complex, has nearly seven presidential palaces."
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2023 11:16
  • Keywords: Anniversary Mosul Palaces Saddam Hussein U.S. invasion of Iraq
  • Location: MOSUL, IRAQ
  • City: MOSUL, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Middle East,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001764715032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Intertwined Arabic letters for S and H engraved in the walls of a crumbling palace in Iraq’s Mosul stand witness to what is left of former president Saddam Husseins’s once-imposing Lake Palace, named after an artificial lake no longer there.
          Saddam had a network of palaces and villas across the country, giving him bases to operate from "as Iraq was going through wars and siege,” said local civil society activist, Saad al-Wazzan.
         "These locations served as spots to run the state, host some presidents, and for rest,” he added.    After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, some of Mosul's palaces were used as bases for U.S. forces, but the facilities were all handed over to Iraqi authorities in 2011, Nineveh's second deputy governor, Hassan al-Allaf, told Reuters over the phone.
        He added that some of the palaces are currently used as headquarters for security services. 
        The Tahaddi Palace and the Lake Palace were both looted and shelled over the past 20 years, including by Islamic State militants.
        Twenty years after the U.S. invasion that toppled the Baathist regime the Lake Palace is still in ruins.     But the Tahaddi palace is being renovated and part of the building is already being used by the University of Mosul.      Another part will be used as a museum by the school of antiquities, according to political science professor at the university, Mahmoud Ezzo.
        He explained that the full renovation of al-Tahaddi palace is expected to take a long time due to a lack of resources.
        Allaf says that there have been no political intentions to leave palaces abandoned, but rather a lack of the allocated funds needed for such projects.
        Wazzan believes that it is essential to renovate these sites, and turn them into museums and cultural centres, much-needed in the country.
        "These buildings tell the Iraqi history. Whether we are supporters or opponents to Saddam Hussein's regime, this is an era lived by the Iraqi republic," he said.
    (Production: Khalid al-Mousily, Hamuda Hassan, Mai Shams El-Din)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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