Mosul civilian casualty toll spikes
Air strikes intensify as Trump administration pushes to ramp up the battle
MOSUL, IRAQ— Scores of Iraqi civilians, some of them still alive and calling out for help, were buried for days under the rubble of their homes in west Mosul after U.S.-led airstrikes flattened almost an entire city block.
At the site on Sunday, more than a week after the bombing runs, weary survivors tried to find bodies in the wreckage. Iraqi officials said the final death toll could reach 200 killed, or even more. That would make it one of the worst instances of civilian casualties from an attack by U.S.-led forces during the long U.S. military presence in Iraq, starting with the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Here, the pace of fighting against Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has grown more urgent, with Iraqi officers saying the U.S.-led coalition has been quicker to strike at urban targets from the air with less time to weigh the risks for civilians. They say the change is a reflection of a renewed push by the U.S. military under the Trump administration to speed up the battle for Mosul.
That push is coming at the moment that the battle for Mosul is nearing its most dangerous phase for civilians, with the fight reaching into the twisting alleys and densely populated areas of the old city. That is where hundreds of thousands of civilians are pinned down in tight quarters with Daesh fighters who do not care if they live or die.
At the same time, more U.S. Special Operations troops, some dressed in black uniforms and driving black vehicles — the colours of their Iraqi counterparts — are closer to the front lines. That way, targeting Daesh fighters should become more precise. The Iraqi officers, by and large, welcome the change, saying that under the Obama administration, coalition officers were too risk averse. Iraqis also say fighting for the dense, urban spaces of western Mosul requires more air power, even if that means more civilians will die.
When those decisions turn tragic, it looks like this: A panorama of destruction in the neighbourhood of Mosul Jidideh, so vast one resident compared the destruction to that of Hiroshima, Japan, where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in the Second World War. There was a charred arm, wrapped in a piece of red fabric, poking from the rubble; rescue workers in red jumpsuits, wearing face masks to avoid the stench, searched the wreckage for bodies. Some slung rifles over their shoulders. One of the survivors, Omar Adnan, stood near his destroyed home on Sunday and held up a white sheet of paper with 27 names of his extended family members, either dead or missing.
The civilian deaths have not been limited to the battle for Mosul. Across large swathes of Syria and Iraq, more U.S. ground troops, and more U.S. airstrikes, are being committed to the fight. In Syria, the battle has intensified in large part around Raqqa, the declared capital of Daesh. The campaigns in both countries intend to deprive Daesh of its biggest cities, while keeping pressure on the group across its holdings.