Officer: troops ordered to avoid heavy weaponry in Mosul to avoid civilian deaths

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi troops have been directed to avoid using heavy weaponry in battles with Islamic State militants in western Mosul as dozens of civilian casualties had sparked an international uproar.

The Joint Operations Command had received directives from the Armed Forces leadership to not to use heavy weapons and smart guns in operations to recapture the remaining parts of western Mosul, DPA quoted a senior Iraqi officer saying.

Mohamed al-Jubouri, a brigadier-general from the JOC, said the command forwarded the instructions to troops on field, including the Federal Police and the Rapid Response forces, urging to avoid using heavy weapons in bombarding IS havens so as to prevent more civilian casualties.

He said that while IS continue to use civilians as human shields, large numbers of militants flee battlefronts to outside Mosul.

The Pentagon has recently said it was going to investigate reports saying that at least 240 civilians died when fighter jets from the U.S.-led international coalition bombarded IS locations in a western Mosul district on March 17th. Its officials, however, said it was difficult to avoid civilian deaths and stressed that combat strategies were not going to be changed.

The JOC, which has been leading battles against IS in Mosul since October, has said it found no evidence that civilians died due to airstrikes, and accused IS of fabricating such allegations to defame the security campaign and detonating civilians’ homes to push back security troops.