Over 300 civilians killed since western Mosul offensive began, says UN

Amnesty accuses US-backed coalition of not protecting the innocent

forcing families to remain in at least 15 frontline western Mosul homes, using the sites to launch attacks on government forces. Al-Hussein called the use of human shields “an act of monstrous depravity.”

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 airstrikes 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 airstrikes,” Milley said.

“It is possible that a coalition airstrike did it. We don’t know yet. There are investigators on the ground.”

Amnesty International said the spike in civilian casualties in Mosul suggests the US-backed coalition is not taking adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths.

Evidence gathered on the ground in Mosul “points to an alarming pattern of US-backed coalition airstrikes which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside,” the Amnesty report stated.

It said any failure to take precautions to prevent civilian casualties would be “in flagrant violation of the international humanitarian law.”

The report quoted survivors and eyewitnesses of airstrikes that have killed civilians as saying that “they did not try to flee as the battle got underway because they received repeated instructions from the Iraqi authorities to remain in their homes.”