Bashiqa, fifteen kilometers north of Mosul, is known as the country's olive region. Hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been growing there for centuries and have been the mainstay of a thriving olive, olive oil and soap industry. But that changed when ISIL took control of the region in 2014. Bashiqa may be free of ISIL now but the olive business may never recover. 

It's tough to tell what this crop is because it's almost dead.

The five-acre olive grove belongs to what was Bashiqa's biggest olive oil and tahini producer - the adjacent, family-owned factory produced thirty-five tons of olive oil per year for markets in Iraq, Kurdistan, Germany and Sweden.

But then ISIL came in in 2014 and trashed it - stealing the machinery, generators, multiple tons of olives and more than a million dollars' worth of sesame seeds.

A graffiti message left behind: "The Caliphate Follows the Path of the Prophet."

Peshmerga fighters pushed ISIL out of Bashiqa in early November the town remains deserted. There's not much to come back to and residents who previously lived under Iraqi governance fear Kurdish Peshmerga may not leave.

On Tuesday, one factory owner returned to retrieve paperwork - he's been here twice since 2014.

"This has been very very painful. Our life's work of years vanished before our eyes in minutes...in hours. It's very hard," said Lausanne Jelal, olive factory owner.

Lausanne hopes to revive the business...it will be a tremendous undertaking.

Before the family can get this factory up and running again, they've got to clear out the mines and explosives, restore water and electricity, replace all of the stolen machinery and they're going to have to re-irrigate these trees.

Foremost in their minds: concern that a brewing Iraqi versus Kurdish struggle for control of Bashiqa will soon erupt, pushing back restoration plans even further.