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Iraqi forces pause Mosul push over concern for civilian casualties

Other News Materials 25 March 2017 21:57 (UTC +04:00)
Iraqi government forces paused in their push to recapture western Mosul from Islamic State militants on Saturday because of the high rate of civilian casualties
Iraqi forces pause Mosul push over concern for civilian casualties

Iraqi government forces paused in their push to recapture western Mosul from Islamic State militants on Saturday because of the high rate of civilian casualties, a security forces spokesman said, Reuters reported.

The halt was called as the United Nations expressed its profound concern over reports of an incident during the battle on March 17 that killed or wounded dozens of people in the Islamic State-held al-Jadidah district of Mosul, apparently involving air strikes by Iraqi or U.S.-led coalition forces.

"We are stunned by this terrible loss of life," Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in a statement.

The U.S. military said on Saturday that a review determined that at the request of Iraqi security forces, U.S.-led coalition struck Islamic State fighters and equipment "at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties."

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement that it took the allegation seriously and that it is conducting a formal investigation "to determine the facts surrounding this strike and the validity of the allegation of civilian casualties."

Civil defense officials and residents have said many people lay buried in collapsed buildings after air strikes against Islamic State insurgents triggered a big explosion.

The exact cause of the collapses was not clear but a local lawmaker and two residents said the air strikes may have detonated an IS truck filled with explosives, destroying buildings in the heavily-populated area.

Reports on the numbers of civilian casualties have varied but Civil Defence chief Brigadier Mohammed Al-Jawari told reporters on Thursday that rescue teams had recovered 40 bodies from collapsed buildings.

Residents escaping besieged western Mosul have told of Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition air strikes demolishing buildings and killing civilians in several cases.

The insurgents have also used civilians as human shields and opened fire on them as they try to escape Islamic State-held neighborhoods, fleeing residents said.

"The recent high death toll among civilians inside the Old City forced us to halt operations to review our plans," a Federal Police spokesman said on Saturday. "It's a time for weighing new offensive plans and tactics. No combat operations are to go on."

The U.S.-backed offensive to drive Islamic State out of Mosul, now in its sixth month, has recaptured the entire eastern side of Mosul and about half of the west.

But advances have stuttered in the last two weeks as fighting enters the narrow alleys of the Old City, home to the al-Nuri mosque where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate spanning large areas of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

"We need to make sure that taking out Daesh (Islamic State) from the Old City will not cost unwanted high casualties among civilians. We need surgical accurate operations to target terrorists without causing collateral damage among residents," the Federal Police spokesman said.

An army statement published in the al-Sabah state newspaper said that future operations would be carried out by ground troops highly trained for urban combat.

"Our heroic forces are committed to the rules of engagement which ensure protection of civilians" the statement said.

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