Children have been victim to some of the worst of the violence and destabilization that has enveloped Iraq for years now, in the context of a brutal war between Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. coalition operations, and the so-called Islamic State group.
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According to a UNICEF assessment, since 2014 in Iraq, at least 1,075 children have been killed, with at least 152 dying in the first months of 2017 alone.
Thousands more have been injured, and separated from their families in the course of the violence and destabilization, and over 5 million children are in need of “urgent humanitarian assistance,” according to the the report.
“It feels like whatever happens in Iraq, I have to sacrifice a child for it,” a woman in Mosul was quoted as saying by UNICEF. She said that she had lost two sons: one in the “previous conflict,” and one in the recent violence with the Islamic State group.
“Across Iraq, children continue to witness sheer horror and unimaginable violence. They have been killed, injured, abducted and forced to shoot and kill in one of the most brutal wars in recent history,” Peter Hawkins, UNICEF representative in Iraq said in a press release.
The report notes that in the last three years alone, at least 3 million Iraqis have been displaced by the ongoing violence and destabilization, half of them children. The displacement has also resulted in widespread, cyclical poverty.
“Violence has generated patterns of displacement and destruction, and pushed more than 1 million children out of school, leaving them with fewer skills and at a higher risk of sinking into poverty,” the report says.
There have been at least 138 attacks on schools, and 58 attacks on hospital facilities.
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The destruction has been at the hands of multiple actors. While the Islamic State group often deliberately targets children, according to UNICEF, the U.S. led coalition has also been heavily criticized for recklessness when it comes to taking proper precaution to guard civilian lives.
Coalition airstrikes often target heavily populated areas, leading to heavy amounts of so-called “collateral damage” and infrastructure damage. The U.S. recently admitted that since the beginning of Operation Inherent Resolve against Islamic State group forces, it is likely that around 500 civilians have been unintentionally killed as a result of coalition forces. Estimates by independent war monitors place the likely toll over twice that.
Although the current bloody conflict with the Islamic State group only began three years ago in 2014, the terrorist group arose in a much longer context of destabilization and violence which has taken a horrific toll on civilians in Iraq since the U.S. led invasion of the country in 2003.
According to independent war casualty moniter, Iraq Body Count, nearly 120,000 civilians have been killed as a result of violence since the U.S. invasion. Estimates which include deaths as a result of the massive poverty and illness that came about as infrastructure was destroyed place the toll many orders of magnitude higher.