The US-led coalition bombing positions in Iraq has admitted that it carried out air raids last week at a location in west Mosul where officials and residents say scores of civilians were killed.

The acknowledgement on Saturday came hours after the United Nations said it was "stunned" by the reported deaths of civilians in suspected coalition air raids in Mosul's al-Jadida district on March 17.

"An initial review of strike data ... indicates that the coalition struck (ISIL) fighters and equipment, March 17, in west Mosul at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties," the US military's Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Saturday.

The coalition said it had struck the area "at the request of the Iraqi security forces" and was investigating to determine the facts and the validity of reports of civilian casualties.

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Erbil in northern Iraq, said it took about a week for the coalition to acknowledge the air raids.

"The response came after intense pressure here in Iraq - probably popular pressure more than government pressure," she said.

"About 200 people are thought to have died in that strike alone," our correspondent added. "These reports of a high toll of civilian casualties were first given by the civilians who actually managed to get out of western Mosul."

Iraqi officials and witnesses say that air raids in west Mosul have killed hundreds of people in recent days, but the exact number of victims could not be independently confirmed.
Bassma Bassim, the head of the Mosul District Council, said "more than 500" civilians were killed by air raids over the past week alone.

"I have never met so many people with so many martyrs in their families," Bassim said, adding that witnesses are questioning whether civilians are being targeted on purpose.

"I have talked to so many people from the victims' families who confirmed that there are only five or six ISIL fighters in the new Mosul area who freely move in the streets without being targeted. They said only civilians in the area are being targeted."

Nawfal Hammadi, the governor of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, said the coalition had carried out the air raids in al-Jadida.

Hammadi had put the toll at "more than 130 civilians" killed, but later referred to "the burial of hundreds of martyrs under the rubble of the houses in the Mosul al-Jadida area".

Civil defense officials and residents have said many people lay buried in collapsed buildings after air raids triggered a big explosion.

Reports on the numbers of civilian casualties have varied but Civil Defense chief Brigadier Mohammed Al-Jawari told reporters on Thursday that rescue teams had recovered 40 bodies from collapsed buildings.

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Salim al-Jabouri, said in a statement: "What's happening in the west part of Mosul is extremely serious and could not be tolerated under any circumstances."

Earlier on Saturday, the UN expressed profound concern over the escalating civilian death toll in the battle to retake Mosul.

"We are stunned by this terrible loss of life," Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in a statement referring to the March 17 incident.

Mark Kimmitt, a former US assistant secretary for political and military affairs, told Al Jazeera that while the deaths of civilians were unfortunate, such "incidents happen in combat".

He added: "Coalition forces are doing everything they can, along with Iraqi security forces, to minimize civilian casualties.

"But let's be clear: [ISIL] deliberately kept civilians in this area for this specific purpose."

The US-backed offensive to drive ISIL out of Mosul, now in its sixth month, has recaptured most of the city. The entire eastern side and about half of the west is under Iraqi control.

Al Jazeera's Abdel-Hamid said thousands of civilians are "trapped" inside the Old City and exposed to the intense fighting.

The UN's Grande said civilians were at extreme risk as the fighting in Mosul intensified and all sides must to do their utmost to avoid such casualties.

"International humanitarian law is clear. Parties to the conflict — all parties – are obliged to do everything possible to protect civilians. This means that combatants cannot use people as human shields and cannot imperil lives through indiscriminate use of fire-power," she said.

Fleeing residents have described grim living conditions inside the city, saying there was no running water or electricity and no food coming in. Aid agencies say as many as 600,000 civilians remain in the western half of Mosul.

The eastern side of the city was recaptured in a three-month offensive that ended in January, but the west, with its densely populated maze of narrow streets, is thought to pose a greater challenge.

PHOTO CAPTION

Smoke rises over Mosul during clashes on Saturday [Reuters]

Al-Jazeera