NPR

Ethical Dilemma Over Treating Civilians Injured In The Battle For Mosul

What happens if warring parties aren't able or willing to treat civilian casualties? WHO's solution made some humanitarian groups uneasy.
Medics from a U.S. group provided care for wounded civilians during the Iraqi government's offensive to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS.

Under the Geneva Conventions, warring parties are responsible for providing medical care to civilians in the territory they control.

But what happens if the warring parties don't have the will or the capacity to treat the civilian casualties? Or if they could not care less about the civilians?

That's a question that erupted in Iraq late in 2016, when the Iraqi military launched a massive military offensive to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS — the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIS had seized control of Mosul two years earlier.

The battle to win it back would take months, cost thousands of lives and drive nearly a million people from their homes. The Iraqi Army

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