1 of 1
- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
Offline 
- Registered: 1/29/2015
- Posts: 13,427
U.S.-Led Coalition Confirms Strikes Hit Mosul Where Civilians Died
U.S.-Led Coalition Confirms Strikes Hit Mosul Site Where Civilians Died
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and TIM ARANGOMARCH 25, 2017
WASHINGTON — The American-led military coalition in Iraq said Saturday that an initial review of recent airstrikes in Mosul, the Islamic State’s last stronghold in Iraq, had confirmed that the strikes hit a site where scores of civilians were killed.
The inquiry, military officials said, found that a building had collapsed a few days after strikes by American forces. United States officials are seeking to determine whether the airstrikes brought down the building, leaving many Iraqis dead, or the Islamic State used the strikes as an opportunity to detonate an explosive in the building.
The Pentagon had acknowledged on Friday that it was investigating reports that its airstrikes had caused deaths in Mosul. The next phase of the investigation, military officials said, is likely to take about three weeks.
The March 17 airstrikes — which Iraqis said had led to the deaths of possibly 200 people — could have produced among the highest civilian death tolls in an American air mission since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
The reports of heavy civilian casualties have come at a critical point in the military campaign to defeat the Islamic State. Iraqi officials said that the Trump administration had appeared to loosen restrictions on the rules of engagement, making it easier for the Iraqis to call in airstrikes. The Iraqis had been frustrated by the Obama administration’s deliberate approach.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the rules had not been loosened.
The coalition said in a statement on Saturday that the airstrikes had been conducted “at the request of the Iraqi security forces,” and that it believed it was hitting Islamic State fighters and equipment.
“The coalition respects human life, which is why we are assisting our Iraqi partner forces in their effort to liberate their lands from ISIS brutality,” the statement said. “Our goal has always been for zero civilian casualties, but the coalition will not abandon our commitment to our Iraqi partners because of ISIS’s inhuman tactics terrorizing civilians, using human shields, and fighting from protected sites such as schools, hospitals, religious sites and civilian neighborhoods.”
It added: “Coalition forces work diligently and deliberately to be precise in our airstrikes. Coalition forces comply with the Law of Armed Conflict and take all reasonable precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.”
The civilian deaths occurred in the recently liberated neighborhood of Mosul Jidideh, and reports of mass casualties began emerging on Thursday, six days after the coalition said it had struck the area. That lapse may have been a result of delays in getting rescue workers to the area, some of whom traveled from Baghdad, 250 miles away.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- tennyson
- Exchanger
Offline
- Registered: 2/06/2015
- Posts: 6,654
Re: U.S.-Led Coalition Confirms Strikes Hit Mosul Where Civilians Died
The US fighting forces use all available resources to avoid civilian causalities and even with that tragedies happen, The ongoing civil war has taken an enormous toll in the Middle East.. Some have estimated 500,000 or more civilians have been killed in Iraq alone. On top of that, there have been millions of refugees and orphans because of the same.
War is indeed an ugly thing.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
1 of 1