MOSUL, Iraq - Leaning on his crutch, Nizar picks through the rubble where the main building of Mosul University used to be, looking for whatever administrative documents can still be salvaged.

He is part of a unit of four volunteers working relentlessly to bring the university back to life three months after the damage it suffered during an Iraqi offensive against the Islamic State terror group.

The sprawling campus on the now retaken eastern side of Mosul was extensively destroyed because it had been used as a major headquarters by the jihadists who took over the city in June 2014.