NPR

Survivors Describe Aftermath Of Mosul Airstrike

An investigation into U.S.-launched air strikes targeting ISIS and killing an estimated 150 civilians last month is underway. Survivors say families were forcibly packed into houses by ISIS fighters.
Mubashar Thanoun with his brother Ali, who was wounded in a U.S. air strike in Mosul on March 17. Mubashar dug Ali out of the rubble of a collapsed building. He hasn't told him yet that his entire family died in the air strike.

In a hospital in Erbil, 4-year-old Hawra' is briefly distracted by a new pink hat and a big stuffed toy. But, soon, she goes back to calling for her mother — her cries filling the hospital room.

"Your mother is in Mosul getting treatment," her grandmother, Aliya Ali, assures her in a singsong voice. "We'll go there," she tells the little girl, before turning to admit that the only thing she can do is lie.

Hawra's mother survived for three days half-buried in the rubble of a house after

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