US War Crimes In Iraq? Russia Wants UN Meeting After Airstrike Kills 200 Civilians In Mosul

Russia’s top diplomat asked Monday for an impromptu meeting in the United Nations’ Security Council following the United States’ admission to an airstrike in Mosul, Iraq, earlier this month believed to have killed more than 200 civilians.

"Today we requested a special briefing in the Security Council. I do not think that the Security Council will be able to state its position with one voice on what happened, but we will ask our questions, we will voice our calls and, of course, we will keep this situation under tight control," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said to reporters in Moscow, according to Sputnik International, a Russia state-funded publication.

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The strike, which was requested by U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces on March 17, hit Baghdad Street in Mosul’s Aghawat Jadidah neighborhood, located on the city’s western side, and reports indicated that women and children were killed. The intended target was the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which Iraqi forces have attempted to push out of one of its last strongholds and had already taken in eastern Mosul.

The Pentagon issued a statement Saturday that it was conducting a Civilian Casualty Credibility Assessment of the strike.

“The coalition respects human life, which is why we are assisting our Iraqi partner forces in their effort to liberate their lands from ISIS brutality,” the statement read.

The assessment was expected to take up to three weeks, and if the death toll was correct, it would be the deadliest such strike against civilians since the U.S. started its strikes against ISIS in 2014. Previously, the Pentagon had stated there were 220 total civilian deaths due to coalition air strikes over almost the last three years but groups monitoring from the ground have estimated as many as 2,700.

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The U.N. had already weighed in on the strike before Lavrov’s comments.

“We're incredibly worried about what is happening in western Mosul. It's much, much, much worse than the east for civilians,” the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Lisa Grande said Saturday.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Air Force and other military branches released statistics showing it had stepped up the fight against ISIS in January and February. Those two months saw a record 7,040 weapons unleashed in the war, but those figures included an array of weaponry, not only air strikes.

In September, Samantha Power, then the U.S. ambassador to U.N., accused Russia of "barbarism" for its bombing campaign in Aleppo.

“Bunker-busting bombs, more suited to destroying military installations, are now destroying homes, decimating bomb shelters, crippling, maiming, killing dozens, if not hundreds,” said Matthew Rycroft, the U.K. ambassador to the U.N.