Story highlights Iraqi military declines to provide casualty figures while battle against ISIS ongoing

UN mission for Iraq says military casualty figures it published were "largely unverified"

Irbil, Iraq (CNN) Iraq's military has disputed UN figures indicating that nearly 2,000 Iraqi troops were killed across the country in November, saying the number was "not accurate and much exaggerated."

Iraq's Joint Operation Command did not give CNN any numbers Saturday, saying it was not obliged to publish casualty figures while the battle against ISIS was ongoing.

But it warned in a statement that "the dissemination of false and fabricated news" could help ISIS as the extremist group seeks to stop Iraqi forces retaking Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and surrounding areas.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, which released its figures Thursday, said in a statement Saturday it had taken note of the Iraqi military's criticism and would not publish military casualty figures again unless they could be better substantiated.

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"UNAMI acknowledges that the military figures were largely unverified," it said, using an acronym for the mission.

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