The Iraqi military pulled 61 bodies from a collapsed building in an Islamic State-controlled section of Mosul on Sunday but said there were no indications it was hit by a US-led coalition airstrike.
Military commanders said witnesses told them the jihadists had used residents of the booby-trapped building as human shields and were firing on troops from nearby houses.
“A team of military experts from field commanders checked the building where the media reported that the house was completely destroyed. All walls were booby-trapped and there is no hole that indicates an air strike,” the Iraqi army officials said in a statement, adding “Sixty-one bodies were evacuated.”
The account is at odds with reports from witnesses and local officials that said more than 200 bodies were pulled from the building allegedly destroyed coalition air strikes that took place on March 13 and March 17.
The Pentagon, on Saturday, confirmed IS fighters and equipment had been hit by US-backed government troops in Mosul and had opened an investigation into claims of civilian casualties.
“The Coalition respects human life, which is why we are assisting our Iraqi partner forces in their effort to liberate their lands from ISIS brutality,” the statement said.
Iraqi forces have been battling IS fighters since October in Mosul, the terror group’s last stronghold in Middle Eastern country.
The militants still control much of the western half of Iraq’s second-largest city while US-led coalition forces have declared the eastern part is “fully liberated.”
Witnesses described the chaos from March 17 after explosions were heard in the Jadida section of Mosul.
“We felt the earth shaking as if it was an earthquake. It was an airstrike that targeted my street. Dust, shattered glass and powder were the only things my wife, myself and three kids were feeling,” one resident, Abu Ayman, told Reuters.
“We heard screams and loud crying coming from the house next door. After the bombing stopped, I went out with some neighbors and found that some houses on my street were leveled.”
With Post wires