UN Fears 200 Died in Coalition Airstrike on Mosul

The United Nations has raised grave concerns about reports of high civilian casualties in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Lately some media reported that more than 200 civilians were killed in a single US-led coalition raid on Mosul. BBC reported that a senior UN official in Iraq said she was stunned by accounts of “terrible loss of life”, after claims that at least 200 people had been killed in an air strike by the US-led coalition. US media reports said that an investigation is under way. The New York Times quoted US military officials saying the coalition was investigating reports of civilian deaths from a strike between 17-23 March. The UN estimates that 400,000 Iraqi civilians are trapped in the Old City of Mosul as government forces battle to re-capture it. More than 180,000 civilians have fled the west of the city in the past month, amid fears that an additional 320,000 may follow in the coming weeks.