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MOSUL, Iraq (CNN) — At least 112 bodies have been pulled from the site of a US-led coalition airstrike in Mosul, senior Iraqi health official Ahmed Dubardani said Monday.
The deaths have sparked renewed concerns about possible civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes targeting ISIS fighters in the city.
A senior Iraqi military officer said a March 17 coalition airstrike on an explosives-laden ISIS truck led to the deaths of dozens of civilians.
The coalition said a review of its airstrikes confirmed one strike that day in the area where the casualties were reported. But US officials have not confirmed the senior Iraqi officer's account.
Both the Iraqi and US defense departments launched investigations Saturday into possible civilian deaths in airstrikes between March 17 and 23.
Bodies from the scene of the March 17 strike — which have been recovered over the last three days — have been removed and buried in a cemetery in western Mosul, Dubardani said.
US and Iraqi forces have been trying to regain control of Mosul — Iraq's second-largest city — from ISIS since October.
ISIS had a firm grip on Mosul since 2014, but suffered a major blow when Iraqi security forces regained control of eastern Mosul in January.
Related:
US acknowledges its forces were behind airstrike on Mosul
An airstrike targeting Islamic State militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul that witnesses say killed at least 100 people was in fact launched by the U.S. military, American officials said Saturday.But the arduous fight for western Mosul continues.
Life under ISIS rule
For Iraqis in recently freed parts of Mosul, the haunting memories of ISIS are still fresh.
One woman in the southern Wadi Hajer neighborhood said ISIS fighters forced her and her family from their home and took them to another house to be used as human shields. She said life under ISIS was humiliating and painful.
A grandmother in the same neighborhood said she lived with her son, his wife and their children as ISIS tormented the area.
She recalled a time when her family's water got cut off, and the whole family had to share one last remaining glass.
"I would go around and give my grandson a sip, and then the others," the grandmother said. "We would all take one sip at a time."
—CNN's Holly Yan and Angela Dewan contributed to this report.
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