As Mosul battle escalates, civilians caught in crossfire

By John DavisonMOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Shihab Ayed and several other men struggled to push a cart carrying the bodies of his son and wife, wrapped in blankets, through a muddy ditch nearly two miles (3 km) from their destroyed home in Mosul.Four other carts followed, laden with days-old corpses from air strikes which the men said had killed 21 relatives and neighbors in an area Islamic State militants controlled earlier in the week."Three houses were destroyed by two air strikes," Ayed said.