Iraq steps up offensive; civilians hunker down

MOSUL, Iraq — Military operations are accelerating in Mosul as part of a drive to retake the handful of districts still under Islamic State control before the holy month of Ramadan begins at the end of May. And despite recent allegations of increased civilian casualties, advances on the ground continue to be backed by heavy airstrikes and artillery.

Begun in mid-February, the fight for Mosul’s western sector has been marked by some of the most difficult fighting and catastrophic destruction yet in Iraq’s war against the Islamic State. The brutality of the operation was highlighted by a single incident just a month into the operation — a U.S. airstrike on March 17 that killed more than 100 people sheltering in a home, according to residents and other witnesses.

By contrast, Mosul’s eastern half was retaken in 100 days of fighting. While front lines stalled at times, the area was less densely populated, neighborhoods were more modern with wider streets allowing tanks and other armored vehicles greater freedom of movement, and the area was never under siege, allowing many Islamic State fighters to flee westward.

The number of civilians reportedly killed in coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria spiked to 1,800 in March, more than three times the number reported a month earlier, according to Airwars, a London-based group that tracks civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes.

Official figures from the Pentagon, which is slower in confirming deaths, are far lower: It said last month that it has confirmed coalition airstrikes killed at least 352 civilians in Iraq and Syria combined since the campaign against the Islamic State started in 2014.

The Pentagon is still investigating the March 17 incident, but Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said the munitions used by the U.S. that day should not have taken the entire building down, suggesting that militants may have deliberately gathered civilians there and planted other explosives.

An Iraqi officer overseeing the Mosul operation said that after the March 17 strike, he received orders to no longer target buildings with munitions. Instead, airstrikes were directed to the streets and gardens beside Islamic State locations.

But the order lasted only a few days. Now, as Iraq’s army, special forces and militarized federal police push to clear the last vestiges of western Mosul held by the Islamic State, the volume of airstrikes is the same as when the mission to retake western Mosul first began, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

A few blocks from the front-line advance, Faisa Muhammed, her children and grandchildren huddled Tuesday on the ground floor of their home. Car bombs, airstrikes and mortar attacks had already broken every window in their house.

Muhammed said two airstrikes hit on either side of her home over the past week. One killed an Islamic State fighter in a neighboring garden and another killed a three-member sniper team on the roof of another house.

“If we hear only 10 explosions in a day, that’s very little,” she said as her grandchildren sat quietly even as the walls around them shook.

Just more than 3 square miles of western Mosul remains under Islamic State control, but within that area is the Old City — congested, densely populated terrain that is expected to present some of the most difficult fighting and greatest danger to civilians.

Iraqi special forces Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said he hopes to complete the Mosul operation before Ramadan begins around May 27 in order to get resources to the hundreds of thousands of civilians believed to be besieged. “It is very important to reach them very quickly,” he said, adding that a victory before the holy month would “bring joy to the residents of Mosul and the troops.”