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IRBIL, Iraq The United Nations warned that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mosul, if confirmed, would be a war crime and a serious violation of international humanitarian law, according to a statement released Saturday.

This is horrible, Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq said in the statement, there is never justification none whatsoever for the use of chemical weapons.

The alleged attack occurred this week in eastern Mosul, an area declared fully liberated by Iraqi forces in January. The attack hit a neighborhood along the Tigris River which roughly divides the city in two.

Doctors in an urgent care hospital in the nearby city of Irbil say they began receiving patients showing symptoms of chemical weapons exposure on Thursday.

The mortar hit our house, right inside the living room where we were sitting, said Nazim Hamid, whose children had burns to their faces, arms and legs. The family was being treated in the Irbil hospital.

There was a very bad smell, it was some kind of gas, he said. My kids were affected, some of them were burned and some of them had difficulty breathing.

Hussein Qader, the deputy director of the hospital, said all 10 patients admitted for exposure are in stable condition and will be discharged in the coming days.

IS has used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria at least 52 times according to a report published late last year by IHS conflict monitor, a London-based research and intelligence gathering group. The report said that at least 19 of the 52 attacks took place in and around Mosul.

Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition officials have repeatedly expressed concern regarding IS chemical weapons attacks. However IS-claimed insurgent attacks in Iraq and attacks targeting civilians attempting to flee Mosul cause far greater numbers of injuries and deaths to civilians.

Most of western Mosul is still under Islamic State group control despite a handful of recent gains on the citys southwestern edge by Iraqi forces over the past two weeks.

The U.S.-led coalition campaign of airstrikes has been pivotal to securing those territorial gains, but has also resulted in civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure.

Coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria between November and January killed 19 civilians and wounded 2, according to a statement from the Pentagon Saturday. The report brings the total number of civilian casualties acknowledged by the coalition to at least 220, according to the Pentagon.

Independent monitoring organizations put the number of civilian casualties much higher. Airwars,an independent monitoring group based in London estimates the minimum number of civilian casualties caused by airstrikes to be at least 2,463.

The Pentagon report added that 19 reports of strikes resulting in civilian casualties were still being assessed, 11 of which occurred in and around Mosul.

Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul in October and began a push to retake the citys western half last month.

After more than two years of slow territorial victories against IS by Iraqi ground forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air power, western Mosul is the last significant urban area IS controls in Iraq.

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UN says any chemical weapons use in Iraq would constitute a war crime - Press Herald

Hind Jijji recently returned to her hometown of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq after Islamic State, or IS fighters were forced from the town.

She and her family fled the area in 2014 just two hours before IS fighters captured Qaraqosh. They feared that IS would target them as religious minorities. So they fled to Iraqi Kurdistan without taking any of their belongings.

Before IS forces attacked Qaraqosh, Hind Jijji was a student at the College of Medicine in Mosul. She planned to become a doctor.

Jijji told VOA she was shocked at how much damage had been done to the town. The home in which she grew up was destroyed.

Jijji told VOA that when IS forces fled, they took everything they could and destroyed what was left.

Jijji said the IS fighters burned hundreds of other homes that belonged to Christians. They also damaged a tall religious center, the church of St. Mary al-Tahira.

St. Mary al-Tahira was once the largest church in Iraq. About 3,000 people went to religious services there every Sunday. The church is an important place for Iraqi Christians. Hundreds of people returned to the town to repair the building in late 2016.

But for many Christians in Iraqi towns, life will never be the way it once was. It will be difficult to re-establish the Christian community in Qaraqosh and the rest of Iraq because most Christians who fled refuse to return. They have decided to move overseas.

The fleeing of many Christians has raised questions about the future of Christianity in Iraq. Muslims and Christians have lived as neighbors in the area for centuries.

I dont want to live in this place again. I dont want to ever live next to people who chose to stay under IS rule, Hind Jijji told VOA.

She and her family are trying to leave the country and join other Iraqis in Europe. For Jijji, moving to the West is not only an attempt to find safety, but a chance to live a better life.

Like Jijji, Maryana Habash also left Qaraqosh with her family when IS fighters attacked.

She and her family were given political asylum in France in early 2016. She now lives in Reims, France and has begun school.

Like Jijji, Habash says Qaraqosh is part of her past now.

Habash says eight other families from Qaraqosh live in Reims and more are coming.

Mass Christian immigration from Iraq is harming the efforts of those who want to establish a self-governing area for Christians in northern Iraq.

Romeo Hakari leads the Bait-al-Nahrain Assyrian Christian political party. He says continued mass migration of our people to the West is the greatest danger to our existence as a religious minority in Iraq.

The Iraqi government does not know how many Christians live in the country. But it is estimated that more than 1.5 million Christians lived there before 2003.

The Iraqi Christian Relief Council is a non-profit group that supports Christian minorities in Iraq. It says the violence that followed the American-led invasion and the targeting of religious minorities by militants have forced about 80 percent of the Christian population to leave the country.

Hakari partly blames the West for mass Christian immigration from Iraq. He says western officials appealed to Iraqi Christians to live in Europe and other places.

Western countries have agreed to accept Iraqi Christians and Yazidis because of the attacks by IS on these groups. This year, a State Department official told VOA that the U.S government and Canada were working to permanently resettle hundreds of Yazidis and Christians from Iraq.

Hakari told VOA that Iraqi Christian leaders meet often with the American and European officials in an effort to reduce support for such programs. But for many Christians like Hind Jijji, it is not possible to return.

With time we have realized that it doesnt matter where we live and what system is in place. What really matters is the people around us.

I'm John Russell.

VOA Correspondent Deborah Block reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

church - n. a place where Christians meet for religious services or classes

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Some Christians Returning to Iraq, But Many Are Not - Voice of America

Baghdad, Iraq - 05 March 2017| The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF in coordination with the Federal Ministry of Health and Ministry of Health of Kurdistan Region today launched the countrys second and last national polio campaign for 2017.

The five-day vaccination drive aims to reach 5.6 million children under the age of five and comes at significant time one month before Iraq celebrates three successive years without a case of polio.

Iraq has been polio-free for almost three years thanks to strong efforts made under the leadership of the Ministry of Health Iraq, Ministry of Health KRG and Departments of Health. There has been a significant improvement in overall population immunity [against polio] and this campaign will help to sustain these gains. It is important that every child under five, regardless of previous vaccination status, receives two drops of polio vaccine during the campaign to further strengthen the immunity, said Altaf Musani, WHO Representative in Iraq. Efforts are being made to achieve high-quality vaccination at both district and sub-district levels, with a focus on marginalized communities, added Musani.

Thanks to the tireless work of those on the ground and the leadership of the Iraqi Ministries of Health, these vaccination campaigns have saved millions of children from life-long paralysis or death, said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative to Iraq.

However, insecurity, fragile health systems, and population movement continue to put the country at high risk of polio importation. Together with health authorities, WHO and UNICEF are working to enhance routine immunization services across the country and conduct emergency vaccination for newly accessible populations in insecure areas.

More than 25,000 trained vaccinators will travel from house to house during the campaign to administer the free-of-charge oral polio vaccine to children. Iraq and KRG ministries of health and departments of health with WHO and UNICEF technical and logistic support will supervise campaign activities, and visit camps, settlements and slums to promote vaccination among high-risk communities.

Through 17 mass polio campaigns conducted since 2013, more than 5.6 million of Iraqs children have been vaccinated against polio, multiple times.

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Iraq kicks off March nationwide polio campaign to sustain population immunity gains [EN/AR] - Reliefweb

WASHINGTON Twenty-one civilians were killed in nine separate strikes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria between November and January, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

That brings the total number of civilians unintentionally killed by the coalition since the start of operations against the militant group in 2014 to 220, the military said in a statement.

"Although the Coalition takes extraordinary efforts to strike military targets in a manner that minimizes the risk of civilian casualties, in some incidents casualties are unavoidable," the statement said.

The military estimate is far lower than those provided by monitoring groups.

At least 2,463 civilians have been killed by coalition air strikes, according to monitoring group Airwars.

In an incident on Jan. 13, near the Iraqi city of Mosul, the military said eight civilians were killed during a strike on Islamic State fighters in a house.

"During post-strike video analysis civilians were identified near the house who were not evident prior to the strike," the statement said

As of Feb. 28, the coalition has carried out 18,666 strikes in Iraq and Syria since the start of the operation, according to U.S. military data. The average daily cost of operations is $12.7 million, according to the data.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Chris Reese)

ISTANBUL A Syrian air force pilot who bailed out as his warplane crashed on Turkish territory has been found by a Turkish rescue team and is being treated at a hospital in the Hatay region, a hospital spokeswoman said on Sunday.

WASHINGTON The White House budget director confirmed Saturday that the Trump administration will propose "fairly dramatic reductions" in the U.S. foreign aid budget later this month.

LONDON Finance minister Philip Hammond said he would not take advantage of an expected lowering in Britain's future borrowing requirements and spend heavily because the country needs "reserves in the tank" ahead of its impending divorce from the European Union.

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220 civilians killed by strikes in Iraq, Syria since 2014: US military - Reuters

ERBIL, Iraq -- The threat of political chaos looms over the imminent defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Mosul, fuelling fear of a dramatically different -- and deadly -- use for Canada's military support for Kurdish peshmerga forces.

Much of the potential upheaval revolves around whether Iraq's disparate Sunni and Shia populations can finally set aside their differences and come together in some sort of reconciliation.

But many are also watching to see whether the Kurds plan to demand independence from the rest of Iraq, as their leaders -- whose arguments for separation echo Canada's own sovereigntist movement -- have promised.

The Kurds have already made it clear they are ready to fight for so-called "disputed territory" that the peshmerga have liberated from ISIS, but whose ownership is claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.

All of which sets up potentially awkward questions for Canada and the federal government, which has thus far said little about the potential long-term effects of its mission to wipe out ISIS.

The Kurds in northern Iraq have enjoyed a degree of self-rule since 1991, when the West established no-fly zones to stop a bloody campaign by Saddam Hussein's forces that killed thousands, mostly civilians.

That de facto autonomy became official after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which saw a new constitution enshrine the Kurds' right to self-government within a unified Iraq.

But persistent tensions appear ready to come to a head as Kurdish president Masoud Barzani has promised a referendum on independence once ISIL is defeated.

The Kurdistan regional government's top diplomat, Falah Mustafa, says the time has come for an "amicable divorce" from the rest of Iraq.

"The One Iraq policy is wrong," he said last week in an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press.

"You tried it, it failed. Don't insist on repeating a failed experience. We can't live together within the same country. But we may be good neighbours."

Mustafa said the Kurds have fulfilled their obligations in the constitution by remaining part of Iraq, but the central government in Baghdad has not fulfilled its part of the bargain by suspending budget transfers.

The money, which is supposed to account for 17 per cent of the national budget, has been held up despite the fact the Kurds have been fighting ISIL and hosting millions of refugees.

"We're supposed to be Iraqis and we are asked to be Iraqis, but at the same time we do not benefit from being Iraqi," he said.

The central government has said the payments were suspended because the Kurds broke a promise to sell their oil through Baghdad.

The differences between Kurds and the rest of Iraq go beyond money, Mustafa said.

"We have our own language, history, culture, music, geography, which is different from that of Arabs," he said, before citing several examples of perceived slights by recent Iraqi leaders toward the Kurds.

None of which includes the pain and suffering Kurds experienced under Hussein's "scorched-earth policy," the effects of which Mustafa said continue to be felt today.

Many Kurds are in favour of statehood at some point, but some worry that the foundations for a successful state -- including a strong economy and an end to corruption -- have not been laid.

"Once we are economically, financially and politically independent, only then will we be truly independent," Kara Alsarraj said between sips of tea at a popular shop in the shadow of Erbil's world-famous citadel.

One Western official, speaking on background because of the need to work with both sides, said the future of Iraq rests with whether the Kurds press for independence or not.

"Question No. 1 is: Does everyone agree that Iraq should hold together?" the official said. "Because if you don't agree that it should hold together, you're not going to reconcile. And that's all about the Kurds. Are the Kurds in or are the Kurds out?"

Mustafa insists any push for independence will be peacefully negotiated with Baghdad. But he adds: "We have been free from Iraq since 1991. We defied Saddam Hussein."

While the question of independence may remain rhetorical for the moment, the issue of what will happen to the disputed territories is a powder keg waiting to explode.

The Iraqi military abandoned much of the territory, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the rocky plains to the east and north of Mosul, to ISIS in the summer of 2014, before the peshmerga freed it all last fall.

Driving those plains last week, the peshmerga remained in force, with guard posts and bunkers dotting a new dirt berm that Kurdish officials say is 1,000 kilometres long and marks the extent of their territory.

Among the communities encompassed by the dirt wall is the ruined town of Bashiqa.

Destroyed buildings, bomb craters and the desiccated bodies of two ISIL fighters stand as a stark reminder of the fierce fighting that occurred here last October and November.

Sitting inside a makeshift headquarters on the edge of town, the local commander, Brig.-Gen. Bahrim Yessin, recalled how Canadian special forces trained his troops before the battle for Bashiqa.

They then called in airstrikes and provide up-to-date intelligence during the actual fighting.

Yessin acknowledged Bashiqa and the surrounding fields are technically disputed territory.

But when asked if he thought it belonged to Iraq or Kurdistan, Yessin said through a translator: "Without any hesitation, this area is Kurdish."

That view is echoed all the way up to the president, who has said the peshmerga will not give up any territory that they have fought and died for against ISIL.

Global Affairs Canada warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2015 about the potential long-term consequences of supporting the Kurds.

"Should the (ISIS) threat recede," the officials said in a briefing note, "Baghdad will have to contend with a range of land disputes with the (Kurdish regional government), as well as strengthened Iraqi Kurdish forces, which have received training and equipment from coalition members, including Canada."

Three months later, the Liberal government announced it would triple the number of Canadian military trainers in northern Iraq and provide weapons to the Kurds.

While Baghdad has said little about the disputed territories, a number of militia groups ostensibly formed to fight ISIL have already clashed with the Kurds.

The Kurds, meanwhile, want the central government to enact a section of the constitution that calls for local referendums to decide whether the land is Iraqi or Kurdish.

Human rights groups have accused the peshmerga of destroying non-Kurdish villages and refusing to let non-Kurds displaced by fighting return to their homes. The Kurds fiercely deny the charges.

Back at his headquarters in Bashiqa, Yessin said he hopes ownership of the disputed territories will be resolved peacefully, "but if the Iraqi military or anyone else wants it, we will not let it happen."

Canadian officials have repeatedly noted that with the Iraqi military in disarray, there were no other reliable partners for fighting ISIL when it was capturing large swaths of territory in 2014.

Even now, they highlight the good co-operation between all the different factions in the fight, and reiterate the importance of all factions staying united against a threat that's not disappearing any time soon.

Brig.-Gen. David Anderson, who is leading a multinational team of military advisers posted inside the Iraqi defence ministry in Baghdad, acknowledged the political situation is "squishy."

"Do I think there's the potential for friction? Absolutely," he said. "But right now, everyone is saying all of the right things."

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Risk of post-ISIS chaos in Iraq casts new light on Canada's support for Kurds - CTV News