A dire situation in Mosul, Iraq. Cheerful slogans about the envelopment and a close victory of the coalition have already turned into significant losses of the Iraqi forces and a growing humanitarian disaster in the city, incomparable in its scale to the suffering of Aleppo during the recent liberation. Amateur actions of the American-led coalition in Mosul are more like a random massacre. There are already thousands of civilian casualties from the airstrikes by the coalition. But who's counting?

Since the first Anglo-American invasion in Iraq, the exact number of victims is still unknown. The estimates differ by hundreds of thousands. Either way, The New York Times wrote on Friday, that 200 civilians died due to an airstrike by the American-led coalition. USA Command are now investigating. They say that the location for the strike was determined by the Iraqi army. They supposedly wanted to destroy snipers and suicide bombers, but it turned out that there were civilians hiding in those basements. They ended up being bombed.

Either way, the city residents continue to flee. Already 200,000 people have fled Mosul. But over 400,000 still remain in the western part, where the fighting continues. Our military correspondent Anton Stepanenko is reporting with the latest updates from Mosul.

Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, is full of empty streets. There are still some people on the outskirts, but the center is pretty much dead. The destroyed houses are abandoned, people have left, the lucky ones. The front line divides the western part of Mosul approximately in half. The battles are taking place in residential areas with dense developments. The opposing sides are sometimes divided by a few meters or a wall of a house. With such high density, it's already a success to free even one house. We could sometimes hear the militants talk to each other. That's how close we sometimes get to each other. It's hard to fight here, they're prepared for defense.



Basically, there are two Mosuls. The first one is with residential blocks, streets and houses. The second one is built by the militants, with underground passages and passages through walls. That's why the rear area is not entirely safe. Right now it's dangerous to walk around Mosul on foot. Sergeant Khalid is taking us closer to the front line. His armored Humvee, a gift from the American commissary, delivers food to the storming parties' soldiers. Iraqi army only forced through the militants' defense on the outskirts, police squads and anti-terror groups are fighting in the city itself. It's dangerous to relax in this city. There's a conventional front line, but there are also raiding forces. They take any chance to attack. Bullet holes on every armored car confirm these words.

The fight for Mosul is brutal from both sides, there's plenty of blood and ammo. You can clearly see American tactic in the actions of Iraqi militants. Western advisors are close by, in the Iraqi police headquarters in the suburbs. Militants' fortifications in residential areas are also being attacked by the aviation and the artillery of the Iraqi army and the American-led coalition. Cannon and rocket artilleries hit the city square-by-square, just like in the field. The police clears the block after the strike. In case of attack, they retreat. And then the artillery begins to work again. The problem with Mosul is that it will be difficult to determine the number of casualties. There can be whole families under the collapsed buildings, like this one. The search operation begins only when the neighbors of the dead report the loss.

According to cautious evaluations, there could be up to 400,000 civilians in Mosul's militants sector. Now these people are between a rock and a hard place. Militants' are sometimes based in the houses, where the civilians are hiding in the basements. These civilian casualties are the price to pay for the Mosul operation. The Great Mosque of Al-Nuri, a mark of Mosul, where the fighting is taking place at the moment, is only about 600 m in that direction away from here.

Right now there is quiet pause, which is unusual for Mosul. According to the Iraqi soldiers, they gave the civilians a chance to leave their covers. Civilian casualties were so great, that Baghdad even paused the storming operation. Only the lucky few are able to cross over the front lines. Militants shoot the runaways. On this footage, the police are fighting off the militants' fire, giving the civilians a chance to get away. A whole family made it through — a man with his wife and their 2 kids. We've been on the run for almost 24 hours now. If they'd caught us, they'd have killed us. My brother was behind us, but he hasn't made it through yet. The camps for Mosul refugees are overpopulated.

According to the UN data, up to 260,000 people could've become refugees. And that's just the official data. The largest camp, Al-Hazr, became home to 45,000. Lines for diesel, lines for food, lines for blankets, lines for medical help. They live and stand in lines here in order to survive. This is what I could get for today. For my family of five, this is our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nearby is a field office of one of the humanitarian organizations. They asked to leave their logo on. There are refugees lined up here, asking for help, but there's no help. I think it's an achievement that we've been able to avoid epidemics so far, even though we've had cases of jaundice and different stomach infections. There's no quarantine for the newly arrived. And there are new ones all the time. It's scary to think what will happen when the heat comes.

While taking us through the rooms, where doctors do their best to help the refugees, Dr. Mahmud admitted that Russians are the first foreign journalists. Except for the Iraqi ones, of course, whom he talks to in the camp. Here they seek help for everything, from a stuffed nose to chronic diseases. During active military stress people neglected them. In the camp these diseases become acute, but there's nothing they can do for those patients.

In severe cases, patients are sent to a hospital in Erbil. They also send the wounded from Mosul here, to get them back on their feet and send the to the camp. Out of 250 beds, 50 are for such cases. There's a separate room for those who survived a chemical attack by the militants. Terrorists in Mosul use the same chemical weapons as that in Aleppo. This is a kids' room. You can clearly see the burns on their skin. This is where the chemical substance burnt them. The problem is that we don't know what kind of toxic substance was used. We try to neutralize the burns on the skin and in airways by general meds. That's why it's hard to predict the consequences of these attacks for the survivors. The next room is for adults, who were under the fire of their liberators.

According to the doctors, there aren't many patients with gunshot wounds. They mainly assist those hurt by the fragments. Fragments of mines and missiles used by the Iraqi army in freeing Mosul with the support of the western coalition. The fragments punctured my leg. My neighbor, he's on the next bed, was buried under the fragments of the wall from his own house. I don't know where the militants were that day, but our street was brutally hit. This is just one hospital, where they bring the injured by friendly fire from Mosul, Iraq, that is now being freed. The operation against ISIS in Iraq goes on.