Story highlights Townsend: ISIS may have been using civilians as human shields

Iraqi official: 112 bodies have been pulled from the site of a March 17 airstrike

(CNN) The top US commander in Iraq said "there's a fair chance" that a US airstrike in west Mosul killed civilians on March 17.

"We have an investigation going on, but our initial assessment ... shows we did strike in that area, there were multiple strikes in that area, so is it possible that we did that? Yes, I think it is possible," Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend told reporters Tuesday.

"Because we struck in that area, I think there's a fair chance that we did it."

Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said the US has sent experts to the scene of the airstrike in west Mosul to investigate allegations of civilian casualties.

He said investigators are assessing whether ISIS was fighting from the building with civilians in order to "lure" the US "deliberately, or they were just using them as human shields to try to protect their fighting position."

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