US probably had role in deaths of Mosul civilians, says US general

The top US commander in Iraq on Tuesday acknowledged that the US-led coalition probably had a role in blasts in Mosul that killed civilians this month, but said an investigation may show that Islamic State may also be to blame.

"My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties. Now, here's what I don't know. What I don't know is were they (the civilians) gathered there by the enemy? We still have some assessments to do," Lieutenant General Steve Townsend told a Pentagon news briefing, speaking from Iraq.

"It sure looks like they were."

Conflicting accounts have emerged since the 17 March explosion in al-Jadida district in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes are fighting to clear Islamic State militants from Iraq's second city.

Investigators are in Mosul to determine whether an air strike or Islamic State-rigged explosives caused a blast that destroyed buildings and may have killed more than 200 people.

"My initial impression is the enemy had a hand in this. And there's also a fair chance that our strike had some role in it," Townsend said.

"It's probably going to play out to be some sort of combination. But I can't really say for sure and we just have to let the investigation play out." 

"If those innocents were killed, it was an unintentional accident of war."

However, the general said that "munitions used" would not have collapsed an entire building - as happened in al-Jadida.

"Actually our munitions, the fact that the whole building collapsed, actually contradicts our involvement," he said.

"The munition that we used should not have collapsed an entire building. 

"So that is one of those things that we are trying to figure out in the investigative process because we have ... munitions in our inventory that can collapse whole buildings. That is not what we used in this case."

Meanwhile, the UN said more than 300 civilians have been killed in west Mosul during the last month in the operation against Islamic State.

"According to information verified by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq, at least 307 people were killed... between 17 February and 22 March," the UN rights office said in a statement. 

"In addition, between 23 and 26 March, reports were received that at least 95 civilians were killed in ... (four) neighbourhoods in western Mosul."

If the second figure is confirmed then the toll would exceed 400, the UN added.

Tom Westcott, reporting for MEE from Mosul, has spoken to residents of the city about the destruction caused by the US-led coalition’s aerial campaign against IS.

"Countless civilians have been killed by these air strikes and many, many bodies are still lying underneath their homes," said resident Ismail Dabus.

"The aircraft see one Daesh guy on the roof and drops a bomb to get him but, in the basement below, a family of 10 people are sheltering and they get killed too,” he continued, referring to the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

Dabus told Westcott that several families often group together in homes that have large basements, so the destruction of even a single house could result in multiple civilian casualties.

"We keep asking why these air strikes are killing so many civilians," he said.

"We know they are necessary, but they have to check to see whether there are civilians inside before they carry out these attacks."

US investigating

Investigators are in Mosul to determine whether a US-led coalition strike or IS-rigged explosives caused a huge blast that destroyed buildings and killed more than 200 people, a US military commander said.

Nineveh provincial governor Nawfal Hammadi said that "more than 130 civilians" were killed in strikes over several days in Mosul's al-Jadida area. Attention has focused on one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17.

The Pentagon said on Monday it was also reviewing more than 700 video feeds of coalition air strikes on west Mosul, after reports of a large number of civilians killed in bombings.

Iraq's military command has blamed militants for rigging a building with explosives to cause civilian casualties, but some witnesses say it was collapsed by an air strike, burying many families under the rubble.

If confirmed, the toll would be one of the worst since the 2003 US-led invasion, raising questions about civilian safety as Iraq's Shiite-led government tries to avoid alienating Mosul's mostly Sunni population.

Iraqi forces have taken east Mosul but are facing a tough battle for the west of the city, where narrow streets meet brutal IS methods, including bulldozers rigged with explosives, as Westcott has reported on.