Fleeing Iraqi civilians walk past the heavily damaged Al Nuri mosque as Iraqi forces continue their advance against Islamic State militants in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo)
Geneva/Erbil, Iraq: The population of Mosul has endured huge suffering in the war to retake the northern Iraqi city from Islamic State and trauma cases among civilians are sharply rising in the last stages of battle, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said.
The city's basic infrastructure has also been hard hit, with six western districts almost completely destroyed and initial repairs expected to cost more than $1 billion, the United Nations said.
Tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped among the shattered buildings in Islamic State's final redoubt in Mosul's Old City by the western bank of the Tigris river, MSF said.
Civilians who have managed to get medical treatment are suffering from burns and shrapnel and blast injuries, while many are in need of critical care and are under-nourished, MSF officials said.
But there is concern that only a small number of the civilians were getting the medical attention they required.
"Really, (there is) a huge level of human suffering," Jonathan Henry, MSF emergency co-ordinator in west Mosul, told reporters in Geneva after spending six weeks in Iraq.
"This is a massive population that has been traumatised from a very brutal and horrific conflict," he said.
&uuid=(email))