61 bodies pulled from rubble in Iraq as airstrikes probed
IRAQ - The Iraqi military says 61 bodies have been pulled from the rubble of a home in Mosul after allegations surfaced that around 200 civilians had been killed in airstrikes in the city.
But the military said that an initial examination of the home shows no indication of an airstrike, and that it was more likely that ISIS militants blew up the building.
The details are among the first to emerge since the defense departments from both Iraq and the United States launched formal investigations Saturday into airstrikes that hit western Mosul between March 17 and 23.
US and Iraqi forces have been making an all-out push to regain Mosul from ISIS since October. Iraq’s second-largest city has been under the terrorist group’s control since 2014 and is its last major stronghold in Iraq. The US-led coalition confirmed Saturday that it had carried out airstrikes on March 17 at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties. Civil defense groups who first reported the civilian deaths on social media say the March 17 strike was one of the deadliest. It is that strike that is the focus of the US probe. The investigations are aimed at clearing up the confusion swirling over the number of civilian casualties and what caused their deaths. Bashar al Kiki, chairman of the Nineveh Provincial Council, told CNN on Saturday that up to 200 people were killed in several indiscriminate airstrikes over a number of days that he blamed on Iraqi and coalition air forces. Of the 61 bodies recovered so far, it is unclear how many belong to civilians and how many might be ISIS fighters. The Iraqi military said in a statement Sunday that the home it examined had been reduced to rubble, but there was no sign of it being hit from the air. The team found a vehicle bomb and detonator in the debris and, along with witness accounts, it believed that ISIS fighters had blown up the home.
The military said 25 women and children were also rescued from the home alive. The military also claimed that ISIS had forced families into the basements of homes in the area, using them as human shields. In several parts of western Mosul, civilians say they are being caught up in coalition airstrikes, as well as crossfire between the Iraqi forces and ISIS fighters, Reuters reports. (CNN)