Continued: Vice President of Iraq called Mosul liberation of merit military of the country
Losses of the armed forces and Iraqi police in the capture of Mosul amounted to about 20 thousand dead and wounded. In an interview with RIA Novosti said the Vice-President of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki.
According to him, the attackers tried to destroy the city more than was necessary, all came from the fact that the battle may be delayed — in the end, she lasted 9 months. “You could surround the city, but the problem was that its inhabitants would suffer from hunger,” added al-Maliki.
July 19, the British newspaper the Independent reported that during the fighting in Mosul killed nearly 40 thousand civilians.
In late March, the concern about the growing number of civilian casualties during the liberation of Mosul expressed the UN. At the same time, Lieutenant General U.S. army Stephen Townsend admitted involvement in the US air force to strike on Mosul, which killed around 200 civilians.
The operation to liberate Mosul from the militants of the terrorist group “Islamic state” (IG, is prohibited in Russia) began in October of last year. It involved army special forces, Federal police, rapid reaction forces, the Kurdish militia and Iraq’s armed forces. Air support was provided by the aircraft of the international coalition headed by the USA. Officially, the liberation of the city was declared on 9 July.