Between 9,000 and 11,000 people were killed in the nine-month battle to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group — a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than has been previously reported, an Associated Press (AP) investigation has found.
The deaths are acknowledged neither by the coalition, the Iraqi government nor the Islamic State group’s self-styled caliphate.
Iraqi or coalition forces are responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October last year and the fall of the Islamic State group in July, according to the AP investigation, which cross-referenced morgue lists and multiple databases from non-governmental organizations.
Photo: AP
Most of those victims are simply described as “crushed” in Iraqi Ministry of Health reports.
The coalition, which did not send 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 organization that documents air and artillery strikes in Iraq and Syria, and shared its database with AP.
“Understanding how those civilians died, and obviously ISIS 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 the group.
In addition to the Airwars database, AP analyzed information from Amnesty International, Iraq Body Count and a UN 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, about one-third of the casualties died in bombardments by the US-led coalition or Iraqi forces. Another third were killed in Islamic State militants’ final frenzy of violence.
It could not be determined which side was responsible for the deaths of the remainder.
However, 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. The US-led coalition has not offered an overall figure. The coalition 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 the Islamic State group 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,” coalition spokesman Colonel Thomas Veale said 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 1 million civilians before the fight to retake it from the Islamic State group. Fearing a massive humanitarian crisis, the Iraqi government dropped leaflets or had soldiers tell families to stay put as the final battle loomed late last year.
As the battle crossed the Tigris River to the west last winter, Islamic State 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 airstrikes and artillery. They were wrong.
When Iraqi forces became bogged down in late December last year, the Pentagon adjusted the rules regarding the use of airpower, allowing airstrikes to be called in by more ground commanders with less chain-of-command oversight.
As the fight punched into western Mosul, the morgue logs filled with civilians increasingly killed by being “blown to pieces.”
Reports of civilian deaths began to dominate military planning meetings in Baghdad in February and early March, said a senior Western diplomat who was present, but not authorized to speak on the record.
After allegations surfaced that a single coalition strike killed hundreds of civilians in Mosul’s al-Jadidah neighborhood on March 17, the entire fight was put on hold for three weeks.
Under intense international pressure, the coalition sent a team into the city for the first time, ultimately concluding that the 227kg bomb that killed 105 people was justified to kill a pair of Islamic State snipers.
Iraq’s special forces units were instructed not to call in strikes on buildings. Instead, the forces were told to call in coalition airstrikes on gardens and roads adjacent to militant targets.
“It was clear that the whole strategy in western Mosul had to be reconfigured,” the Western diplomat said.
However, on the ground, Iraqi special forces officers said after the operational pause, they returned to the fight just as before.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique