US opens investigation into its role in Mosul air raid that killed dozens of civilians

The US military has launched a formal investigation into what role it played in the deaths of dozens of civilians in Mosul, Iraq, earlier this month, amid warnings from a top American general that the dense urban fight is making it harder to avoid killing innocents.

General Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, told Congress that Islamic State militants are exploiting American sensitivities to civilian casualties, using people as human shields to avoid being targeted by strikes.

Votel and other military officials have, in recent days, acknowledged that the US probably played a role in heavy casualties on March 17, when air strikes destroyed a building filled with civilians. Residents and outside groups have said the explosion killed at least 100 people.

“As we move into the urban environment it is going to become more and more difficult to apply extraordinarily high standards for things we are doing, although we will try,” Votel said during a House Armed Services meeting.

Republican Representative Martha McSally of Arizona, a retired Air Force colonel, questioned whether the high standards are “ridiculous,” because they allow militants to use civilians as a defence against airstrikes so they can “live to fight another day.” The result, she said, is just more innocent deaths.

Votel said the investigation will look at what Islamic State militants did to contribute to the civilian deaths in the March 17 strike. He and others have said the munitions used by the US that day should not have taken the entire building down, suggesting that militants may have deliberately gathered civilians there and planted other explosives.