Relief teams recover bodies of 5 children from Mosul rubble
A displaced Iraqi man who fled from clashes, carries children in western Mosul, Iraq, June 3, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi relief workers recovered Tuesday the dead bodies of five children who were buried under the rubble of destroyed homes in western Mosul’s Old City.
A security source told Almaalomah that the children’s ages ranged from two to seven.
The corpses were delivered to forensic authorities preparing to hand them over to their relatives.
Hundreds of civilians died during battles between Islamic State militants and Iraqi, U.S.-backed forces which fought to retake the city from militants since October and until the declaration of victory earlier this month.
While the U.S.-led coalition had admitted causing civilian casualties in some occasions, Iraqi forces repeatedly denied involvement in botched strikes, with commanders reiterating the heeded civilians’ safety. Islamic State militants had also targeted and executed civilians who fled the battle fields.
The war in Mosul has so far displaced more than 900.000 people, and United Nations agencies have regularly shed light on difficult conditions endured by children trapped in the conflict, labeling it as one of the biggest humanitarian crises.
The Iraqi government and military commanders said recently they were preparing to invade the remaining IS holdouts in Nineveh.