Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Old City in Mosul has been declared to be empty of bodies under the rubble, the governor of Nineveh province said on Friday.
Speaking to Alghad Press, Nofal al-Aakob, the governor, said “the civil defense department as well as others managed to recover all the bodies under the rubble in the Old City. No more bodies are there.”
The civilian recovered bodies, according to Aakob, reached 2654, while 157 bodies of Islamic State members were recovered.
Other sources said on Thursday that more than 600 bodies were recovered within the campaign, launched on Wednesday.
The total number of recovered bodies since end of war in Mosul against Islamic State, that ended more than ten months ago, reached 9,000, according to municipal sources.
The bodies recovered over the past two days are being buried randomly in the Old City, sources told Alghad Press.
As many as 3,298 civilians were killed and 4,781 others were wounded in 2017, excluding Anbar civilian casualty figures for November and December, which are not available, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a report in December.
Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.
