Iraqi civilians are getting caught in the crossfire to drive the Islamic State from Mosul and American Christian group Samaritan's Purse is stepping in to save lives by providing much needed medical help.
The Pentagon admitted over the weekend that a U.S.—Coalition airstrike targeting Islamic State fighters in Mosul may have accidentally killed perhaps 100 or more civilians.
The task force that led the March 17 attack says it targeted ISIS forces “at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties.”
ISIS is using many Mosul residents as human shields to protect their fighters.
Residents in the area claim at least 137 people were killed in the airstrike and rescue teams have already pulled 83 bodies from the rubble—many of them women and children.
The 12-year old son of Lina Ahmed was among those killed in the airstrike. The 30-year old mother of three survived the attack and was treated at a nearby Sam's Purse field hospital. Doctors also treated other survivors at the facility and Medecin Sans Frontier (Doctors Without Borders) workers say tens of thousands of Iraqis who have fled Mosul--and many others still stuck inside the besieged city are in need of urgent medical treatment.
Meanwhile, in Syria, American-backed Kurdish troops (Syrian Democratic Forces) have surrounded the ISIS capital of Raqqa.
They have reportedly seized control of the strategic Tabqa airbase 25-miles west of Raqqa, and other SDF troops now control the city of Karama, which is only 10 miles from the ISIS capital city.
The battle to liberate the people of Raqqa from ISIS control is expected sometime this spring.
As in Mosul, many innocent civilians are trapped inside Raqqa. Government and military officials worry many more civilians may die in the final push to drive ISIS from the Syrian caliphate capital city.