Little has been left unscathed in these neighborhoods, where a tremendous amount of firepower from the sky and on the ground has been brought to bear.
Coalition airstrikes are still being called in frequently in the middle of densely populated neighborhoods, and the civilian toll has been immense. But the Iraqi forces have seemed reluctant to advance at all without the air support. Here, they treated a girl who was wounded when her house was hit in an airstrike.
When asked why the men didn’t just engage the Islamic State fighters more directly themselves rather than risk more civilian lives by using airstrikes, one young soldier said they wanted to finish the fight with no casualties on their side.
Maybe this way of thinking points to the high rate of attrition the Iraqi forces have had over the last few years of fighting the militants, including a huge toll on the elite counterterrorism forces over the past few months of urban fighting in Mosul. Or maybe it’s an indication of a fight so bitter that utter destruction is acceptable as long as the enemy is beaten.
Ahead lies Mosul’s Old City, and perhaps the worst fight yet. As the battle has drawn closer to that area’s tight and jagged streets, the number of fleeing civilians has dropped sharply.
