US plans to release video to shed light on airstrike
Crouching in his Mosul home, Abu Ayman suddenly felt the ground rock as if struck by an earthquake when a massive explosion tore through his street, filling the room with dust and shattered glass. Then came the screams and cries from next door.
His account describes horrific scenes after the blast that may have killed about 240 people on March 17, as the battle to recapture Iraq’s second city from Isis ( Islamic State) advances though the cramped and densely populated western districts.
The US military has acknowledged that an airstrike by the US- led coalition probably played a role in the civilian deaths.
Running outside, Abu Ayman said he saw several houses on the street flattened and severed limbs scattered in the rubble. Frantic residents scrambled to pull relatives out of the collapsed homes, where they had sheltered from bombardments.
“I ran to my next- door neighbour’s house and with others we managed to rescue three people, but at least 27 others in the same house were killed, including women and children of relatives who fled from other districts,” he said.
The risk of civilian casualties in western Mosul was always high as Iraqi government forces and their allies stage the assault. Tens of thousands of residents are trapped in homes around the Old City, where local people say jihadist fighters are using them as human shields or herding them into buildings as cover.
The Pentagon suggests Isis did just that. It said yesterday that it would soon release a video showing Isis militants herding civilians into a building and then firing from it.
Rights group Amnesty International and Pope Francis have both called for better protection for civilians caught in war zones in Iraq.
The Pentagon does not regularly release images or videos from operations. However, it has had to do so once already in March after it denied striking a mosque in Syria, releasing an aerial image to show the mosque was intact. That incident is under investigation.
A spokesman for the US- led coalition told reporters yesterday that he was working to declassify the video showing militants hiding civilians in a building in west Mosul to “bait the coalition to attack”.
If confirmed those high casualties would mark the worst loss of Iraqi civilian life in a single incident since the 2003 US- led invasion.