UN: If confirmed, chemical attacks in Mosul a war crime

Warning from world body comes after suspected use of banned substance by Islamic State during battle for city

By AP 4 March 2017, 5:13 pm

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Smoke billows as Iraqi forces hold a position on a street in Mosul on March 1, 2017, during an offensive by security forces to retake the western parts of the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. (AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

IRBIL, Iraq — The United Nations warned that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mosul, if confirmed, would be a war crime and a serious violation of international humanitarian law, according to a statement released Saturday.

“This is horrible,” Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq said in the statement. “There is never justification — none whatsoever — for the use of chemical weapons.”

The alleged attack occurred this week in eastern Mosul, an area declared fully liberated by Iraqi forces in January. The attack hit a neighborhood along the Tigris River — which roughly divides the city in two.

Doctors in an urgent care hospital in the nearby city of Irbil say they began receiving patients showing symptoms of chemical weapons exposure on Thursday.

Illustrative: a mortar launched by Islamic State (IS) group fighters lands near a vehicle belonging to Iraqi forces during the assault to retake the northern city of Mosul, on February 25, 2017. (AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

“The mortar hit our house, right inside the living room where we were sitting,” said Nazim Hamid, whose children had burns to their faces, arms and legs. The family was being treated in the Irbil hospital.

“There was a very bad smell, it was some kind of gas,” he said. “My kids were affected, some of them were burned and some of them had difficulty breathing.”

Hussein Qader, the deputy director of the hospital, said all 10 patients admitted for exposure were in stable condition and will be discharged in the coming days.

Most of western Mosul is still under the Islamic State terrorist group’s control despite a handful of recent gains on the city’s southwestern edge by Iraqi forces over the past two weeks.

IS has used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria at least 52 times according to a report published late last year by IHS conflict monitor, a London-based research and intelligence gathering group. The report said that at least 19 of the 52 attacks took place in and around Mosul.

Iraqi families walk down a road as they flee Mosul on March 3, 2017, during an offensive by security forces to retake the western parts of the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. (AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

Iraqi and US-led coalition officials have repeatedly expressed concern regarding IS chemical weapons attacks. However IS-claimed terrorist attacks in Iraq and attacks targeting civilians attempting to flee Mosul cause far greater numbers of injuries and deaths to civilians.

Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul in October and began a push to retake the city’s western half last month.

After more than two years of slow territorial victories against IS by Iraqi ground forces backed by US-led coalition air power, western Mosul is the last significant urban area IS controls in Iraq.