Packed Iraq morgue reveals toll of Mosul conflict
Doctor Mansour Maarouf dons a surgical mask as he approaches the morgue refrigerator and pauses before pulling open the door to an icy blast. "In the name of God," he says out of respect for the dead. Nearly all of them are victims of the ongoing battle to dislodge Islamic State militants from Mosul, around […]Isabel Coles writes for Reuters:
Doctor Mansour Maarouf dons a surgical mask as he approaches the morgue refrigerator and pauses before pulling open the door to an icy blast. "In the name of God," he says out of respect for the dead.
Nearly all of them are victims of the ongoing battle to dislodge Islamic State militants from Mosul, around 60 km further north. On the deadliest day so far, 21 bodies arrived at the hospital in the town of Qayyara.
The morgue gives a sense of the heavy toll the conflict is taking on civilians, but also highlights the practical challenges of dealing with the dead when infrastructure is ruined and administration has collapsed.
