Baghdad looks into civilian death toll
Military announces start of investigation as residents who fled liberated parts of Mosul tell of life as ISIL’s human shields
HAMMAN AL ALIL, IRAQ // The Iraqi government has launched an investigation into civilian deaths from the campaign against ISIL extremists in west Mosul. The announcement came as residents of freed areas in the city’s west told of being used as human shields by the militants.
And a military leader said ISIL fighters had gathered people together and then detonated vehicle bombs near by to make it look like Iraqi forces were targeting innocent civilians.
“The defence ministry has opened an investigation into civilian deaths,” said Brig Gen Yahya Rasool of Iraq’s joint operations command overseeing the battle against ISIL.
Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism forces on Saturday announced a temporary halt to the assault on the city as international outcry about civilian deaths grew.
The forces began stationing snipers to target militants who were using civilians as human shields, Brig Gen Rasool said.
They were relying on “light and medium weapons, among them sniper rifles, to hunt for Daesh members” among residents.
Civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt as fighting intensifies for the last few areas of west Mosul still held by ISIL. Iraqi authorities yesterday said they were investigating the high rate of casualties in the Mosul Al Jadida area, with estimates ranging from dozens to hundreds.
ISIL stops civilians from leaving neighbourhoods under their control and shoots those who try to escape. As the insurgents are pushed back, so are the trapped families, hemming an increasing number of people into a shrinking area.
Residents who have escaped say they cowered in basements or were locked away as the militants fought Iraqi forces from inside their homes.
“Daesh stayed in our house for one week until they retreated,” said Rahma, 21, who fled the Mansour neighbourhood after it was liberated. “We were really scared that the coalition would bomb us. We were locked into the bathroom for three days, with nothing to eat.”
The insurgents knock holes in walls separating houses and force residents to keep their doors open, allowing them to shift positions quickly and without detection.
It also enables a small number of insurgents to open fire at Iraqi forces from different positions, putting more families at risk.
Often the number of people in a building is swelled by families displaced by fighting in other areas. Rahma’s family of 12 had taken in 23 relatives from the Wadi Hajjar area on the outskirts of west Mosul.
Such crowding increases the death toll when air strikes or artillery hit residential areas. Rahma said about 20 people died when bombs struck the homes of two neighbouring families in Mansour, one of whom had taken in a family from Wadi Hajjar.
A strike that the US-led coalition has confirmed carrying out on March 17 is claimed to have killed as many as 150 civilians when two bombs destroyed several houses packed with families. Umm Mustapha and her fami- ly endured 12 days of intense coalition bombing before ISIL was finally driven out of west Mosul’s Al Jadida district last week.
“It was like the apocalypse. The air strikes were very powerful, and the earth would shake when the bombs exploded,” said Umm Mustapha, in a displacement camp in the nearby town of Hamman Al Alil.
The terrified family of nine huddled under a staircase as bombs rained down on their neighbourhood, she said.
“There was no life inside. The smell of death was everywhere,” Umm Mustapha said. The militants then began to rain mortar rounds on the area, forcing the family to to flee.
Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism troops discovered the terrible cost of their victory when they finally took Mosul Al Jadida last Tuesday. Amid an international outcry over the civilian toll, the Iraqi military on Saturday announced a temporary halt to the offensive in west Mosul.
With their numbers depleted by three months of fighting to liberate eastern Mosul from ISIL, the special operations forces that took Mosul Al Jadida frequently call on coalition air support in the west of the city.
The federal police and their elite units also rely on air cover to fend off suicide car bombers and make headway against strong resistance from the extremists.
Iraqi authorities say more than 200,000 people have left west Mosul since the operation to retake it began on February 19. But according to the UN, about 600,000 remain.
Ghazali, 40, and her family had escaped when they hid in their home during fighting for Wadi Hajjar, as three ISIL fighters defending their block moved from building to building. When the forces moved in, an officer came to their house. “He showed us a map and told us that our house had been a target, but that Daesh had retreated before the coalition dropped a bomb on it,” said Ghazali, who has also fled to the camp at Hamman Al Alil.
Suicide car bombs are another lethal threat to civilians, and can tear huge holes in Iraqi lines if they are not stopped.