More than 9,000 civilians killed in Mosul war on Daesh: AP study
mosul — Between 9,000 and 11,000 people were killed in the nine-month battle to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from the terrorist group Daesh — a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than has been previously reported, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The deaths are acknowledged neither by the coalition, the Iraqi government nor the Daesh’s selfstyled leaders.
Iraqi or coalition forces are responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the fall of Daesh in July 2017, according to the AP investigation, which cross-referenced morgue lists and multiple databases from non-governmental organisations. Most of those victims are simply described as “crushed” in health ministry reports.
The coalition, which did not send
It was the biggest assault on a city in a couple of generations, all told. and thousands died Chris Woods, head of Airwars
anyone into Mosul to investigate, acknowledges responsibility for only 326 of the deaths.
“It was the biggest assault on a city in a couple of generations, all told. And thousands died,” said Chris Woods, head of Airwars, an independent organisation that documents air and artillery strikes in Iraq and Syria and shared its database with AP.
“Understanding how those civilians died, and obviously Daesh played a big part in that as well, could help save a lot of lives the next time something like this has to happen. And the disinterest in any sort of investigation is very disheartening,” Woods said, using an alternative acronym for Daesh.
In addition to the Airwars database, AP analysed information from Amnesty International , Iraq Body Count and a United Nations report. AP also obtained a list of 9,606 names of people killed during the operation from Mosul’s morgue. Hundreds of dead civilians are believed to still be buried in the rubble.
Of the nearly 10,000 deaths the AP found, around a third of the casualties died in bombardments by the US-led coalition or Iraqi forces. Another third were killed in Daesh militants’ final frenzy of violence. And it could not be determined which side was responsible for the deaths of the remainder.
But the morgue total would be many times higher than official tolls. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al Abadi told the AP that 1,260 civilians were killed in the fighting. —