If confirmed, chemical attacks in Mosul a war crime: UN

Irbil: The United Nations is warning that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mosul, if confirmed, would be a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

"This is horrible," says Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq in a statement Saturday. "There is never justification - none whatsoever - for the use of chemical weapons."

The alleged attack occurred this week in eastern Mosul, an area declared fully liberated by Iraqi forces in January in a neighbourhood along the Tigris River that roughly divides the city in two.

Most of western Mosul is still under Islamic State group control despite a handful of recent gains on the city's southwestern edge by Iraqi forces over the past two weeks.