Iraq hospital brimming with Mosul civilian, army casualties

Doctor says triage center struggling to treat floods of new patients injured in battle to free city from Islamic State jihadists

By MYSTYSLAV CHERNOV 28 November 2016, 2:46 pm

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Iraqi special forces soldiers from the medical unit, and an American medic volunteer, center left, treat an injured man who was wounded by a mortar shell at a field hospital, in the Samah front line neighborhood, in Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The main hospital treating trauma victims from the battle for Mosul is overflowing with civilian and military casualties, according to a doctor there.

Dr. Marwan Ghafuri of the West Irbil Hospital, the main triage center for trauma cases from the Mosul battle, said his facility is admitting up to 150 new patients per day

“The problem here is we have not enough beds in the emergency (room),” he said. “We have a lack of medications and the operating rooms are full. We cannot operate immediately on all the patients.”

Ghafuri said he expects the influx of wounded to continue at the same level for the next three months as the Mosul operation continues.

The offensive to free Mosul of Islamic State militants is now in its second month, and progress has slowed as troops try to avoid mass civilian casualties. The military officially bans reporting on its numbers of killed and injured, although field medics have noted at least dozens of soldiers have died.