More than 9 000 killed in Iraq battle for Mosul

this has to happen. And the disinterest in any sort of investigation is very disheartening,” Woods said.

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 that AP found, around a third of the casualties died in bombardments by the US-led coalition or Iraqi forces.

Another third were killed in ISIL fighters’ final frenzy of violence. 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 Haider al-Abadi told the AP that 1 260 civilians were killed in the fighting.

The US-led coalition has not offered an overall figure. It relies on drone footage, video from cameras mounted on weapons systems and pilot observations for investigations.

“The coalition never came to us or sent anyone else to us asking for data. They never came directly or indirectly,” said Hatem Ahmed Sarheed, one of the Iraqi men responsible for recording Mosul’s dead.

An AP reporter visited the morgue six times in six weeks and spoke to morgue staffers dozens of times over the phone.

The Americans say they do not have the resources to send a team into Mosul. Because of what the coalition considers insufficient information, the majority of civilian casualty allegations are deemed “not credible” before an investigation ever begins.

The coalition has defended its operational choices, saying it was ISIL that put civilians in danger as it clung to power.

“It is simply irresponsible to focus criticism on inadvertent casualties caused by the Coalition’s war to defeat ISIS,” Colonel Thomas Veale, a coalition spokesman, told the AP in response to questions about civilian deaths.

“Without the Coalition’s air and ground campaign against ISIS, there would have inevitably been additional years, if not decades of suffering and needless death and mutilation in Syria and Iraq at the hands of terrorists who lack any ethical or moral standards,” he added.

What is clear from the tallies is that as coalition and Iraqi government forces increased their pace, civilians were dying in ever higher numbers at the hands of their liberators.

Mosul was home to more than a million civilians before the fight to retake it from ISIL.

Fearing a massive humanitarian crisis, the Iraqi government dropped leaflets or had soldiers tell families to stay put as the final battle loomed in late 2016.

As the battle crossed the Tigris River to the west last winter, ISIL fighters took thousands of civilians with them in their retreat.

They packed hundreds of families into schools and government buildings.

They expected the tactic would dissuade air raids and artillery. They were wrong.

When Iraqi forces became bogged down in late December, the Pentagon adjusted the rules regarding the use of airpower, allowing air attacks to be called in by more ground commanders with less chain-ofcommand oversight.

As the fight punched into western Mosul, the morgue logs filled with civilians increasingly killed by being “blown to pieces.”