The U.S.-backed Iraqi military’s ground campaign against ISIS to retake west Mosul was mistakenly reported as being halted after details emerged about U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on March 17th killed over 200 people in a single day. The U.S.-led coalition has admitted launching the airstrikes that targeted a crowded section of the Mosul al-Jadida neighborhood. The March 17 strikes appear to be among the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in the region since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Amnesty International has accused Iraqi officials of advising residents not to flee amid the airstrikes and ground offensive. Amnesty claims officials dropped leaflets and broadcast over the radio that residents should stay in their houses. Amnesty said, “The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area, indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties.
Disproportionate attacks and indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law and can constitute war crimes.” Many have questioned whether the U.S. military has loosened the rules of engagement that seek to limit civilian casualties. The Pentagon maintains the rules have not changed.
Despite reports of the ground campaign being suspended, heavy fighting continues in west Mosul. The campaign for West Mosul has involved block-by-block fighting in an urban environment. ISIS has been using snipers and bombs against the US backed Iraqi military.
Though not confirmed, it’s been reported that Major Gen. Maan al-Saadi, a commander of the Iraqi special-forces, said that the civilian deaths were a result of a coalition airstrike that his men had called in, to take out snipers on the roofs of three houses in a neighborhood called Mosul Jidideh. General Saadi said the special forces were unaware that the houses’ basements were filled with civilians seeking refuge.
Witnesses have said that in an area where apartment blocks were reduced to rubble, at least 50 bodies could be seen, including those of pregnant women and children.
The Pentagon announced that the incident was under investigation and a day later confirmed that the coalition had targeted Islamic State fighters and equipment in the area on March 17, “at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties”. The military is investigating at least a dozen other reports of civilian casualties in Mosul.
Iraqi Vice-President Osama Nujaifi, a Mosul native, has called the strike a “humanitarian catastrophe” that killed hundreds. He blamed the US-led coalition and federal police for using excessive force and called for an emergency session of Parliament to address the incident.
Prior to this incident, the Pentagon had said that there have been 220 civilian deaths since the campaign against the Islamic State began in 2014, but independent monitoring groups say that there have been over 2700.
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