Investigators probe Mosul blast as battle rages on
US commander meets with PM Abadi • Thousands trapped in Islamic State-held areas
MOSUL (Reuters) – Investigators are in the Iraqi city of Mosul to determine whether a US-led coalition strike or Islamic State-rigged explosives caused a blast that destroyed buildings and may have killed more than 200 people, a US military commander said.
Conflicting accounts have emerged since the March 17 explosion in al-Jadida district in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes are fighting to clear Islamic State insurgents from Iraq’s second city.
Iraq’s military command has blamed jihadists for rigging a building with explosives to cause civilian casualties, but some witnesses say it was collapsed by an air strike, burying many families under the rubble.
If confirmed, the toll would be one of the worst since the 2003 US-led invasion, raising questions about civilian safety as Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government tries to avoid alienating Mosul’s mostly Sunni population.
US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq’s defense minister late on Monday, said there had been air strikes in the vicinity that day and on previous days but it was not clear they had caused the casualties.
“It is very possible that Daesh blew up that building to blame it on the coalition in order to cause a delay in the offensive on Mosul and cause a delay in the use of coalition air strikes,” Milley said. “It is possible that a coalition air strike did it. We don’t know yet. There are investigators on the ground.”
A source close to Abadi’s office said the US military delegation also called for more coordination among the Iraqi security force units on the ground and for consideration that thousands of civilians are stuck in their homes.
The United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday at least 307 civilians have been killed and 273 wounded in western Mosul since February 17, saying Islamic State herds residents into booby-trapped buildings as human shields and fires on those who try to flee.
“This is an enemy that ruthlessly exploits civilians to serve its own ends,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said. “It is vital that the Iraqi security forces and their coalition partners avoid this trap.”
Official figures indicate that at least 61 people were killed in that incident, “but the actual figure may be much higher,” Zeid’s spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.
Iraqi forces have retaken eastern Mosul and are pushing through the west but have faced tough resistance in the densely populated districts around the Old City, where narrow streets and traditional homes force close-quarters fighting.
“In terms of the air strikes that have caused casualties... that is also complicated by the fact that ISIS reportedly actually placed explosive devices in these same buildings which they had herded civilians into. So that will of course have compounded the devastation,” Colville said.
It is “essential the coalition and the Iraqi forces really try hard to minimize the impact on the civilians,” he said.
“Clearly not easy. We’re not saying it is,” Colville said. “But they do have obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Iraqi forces fighting around the Old City tried to storm the al-Midan and Suq al-Sha’areen districts, where Islamic State ran its religious police who carried out brutal punishments, such as crucifixion and public floggings, federal police commander Lt.-Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat told state al-Sabah newspaper.
Helicopters were strafing Islamic State targets around al-Nuri Mosque, where Islamic State’s leader declared his caliphate nearly three years ago after jihadists took control of swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Thousands of civilians are fleeing the fighting, shelling and air strikes, but as many as half a million people may be trapped inside the city. Fleeing residents say they have been used as human shields by insurgents who shelter in their homes.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said since the campaign against western Mosul began in February, unconfirmed reports have said nearly 700 civilians have been killed by government and coalition air strikes or Islamic State action.
Rights group Amnesty International said the high civilian toll suggests US-led coalition forces have failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths.
The al-Jadida incident is far from clear. Witnesses on Sunday described horrific scenes of body parts strewn over rubble, residents trying desperately to pull out survivors and other people buried out of reach.
The Iraqi military’s figure of 61 bodies was lower than that given by local officials – a municipal official said on Saturday 240 bodies had been pulled from the rubble. A local lawmaker and two witnesses say a coalition air strike may have targeted a truck bomb, triggering a blast that collapsed buildings.