The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Airstrikes increase Iraqi civilian deaths
U.S. denies looser rules for avoiding civilian casualties.
U.S. airstrikes BAGHDAD — probably played a role in the deaths of dozens of civilians in Mosul earlier this month, U.S. and Iraqi military officials acknowledged Tuesday, but they denied the rules for avoiding civilian casualties have been loosened despite a recent spike in civilian casualties.
Speaking from Baghdad to reporters at the Pentagon, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said an ongoing investigation may reveal a more complicated explanation for the March 17 explosion that residents say killed at least 100 people, including the possibility that Islamic State militants rigged the building with explosives after forcing civilians inside.
Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said a recent spate of civilian casualties in Mosul was “fairly predictable” given the densely populated urban neighborhoods that Islamic State fighters are defending against Iraqi government troops. But the civilian deaths cannot be attributed to any loosening of American military rules of combat, he said, and Washington hasn’t decided to tolerate greater risk of civilian casualties in U.S. airstrikes.
Amnesty International on Tuesday said the rising death toll suggested the U.S.-led coalition wasn’t taking adequate precautions as it helps Iraqi forces try to retake the city.
Townsend acknowledged the U.S. had conducted multiple airstrikes in the area of the explosions. That, coupled with initial findings by U.S. technical experts who visited the scene, led him to say: “My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties.”
But Townsend said the type of munitions used by the U.S. in the airstrikes should not have been able to bring down the entire building. He said U.S. officials were assessing the possibility that Islamic State forced civilians to gather there, and that the militants filled the building with explosives, he said.
“My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties,” Townsend said. “What we don’t know for certain is whether that strike is responsible for the casualties in question.
“The fact that the whole building collapsed contradicts our involvement,” he said. “The munition that we used should not have collapsed an entire building. So that’s one of those things we’re trying to figure out in the investigative process.”
In the most extensive U.S. explanation of what is known about the event, Townsend stressed that no one should assume the destruction of the building was a deliberate U.S. act.
“If we did it — and I’d say there is at least a fair chance we did — it was an unintentional accident of war,” he said.
Iraq’s ministry of defense also blamed the Islamic State for the high civilian death toll.
“As our forces advanced toward that area to liberate it, the explosive-laden tanker truck headed toward our advancing troops, it was targeted by an airstrike which led to a huge explosion. The explosion damaged number of buildings, including the one where (the Islamic State) crammed about 130 civilians,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool.
The Islamic State planned the slaughter to “impact the civilians, to inflame the public and to convey a wrong message to the world that the joint forces and the international coalition are behind the killing and bombings,” Rasool said.
The fight for western Mosul began in February after Iraqi security forces pushed the militants out of the eastern side of the Tigris River city. In recent weeks, the Islamic State defenders have taken shelter in neighborhoods with narrow streets and trapped civilians, Townsend said.
“It is there that the enemy has invested 21/2 years of defensive preparations,” he said, calling it the “toughest phase” of the war.
“I think that’s really the explanation for the civilian casualties,” Townsend added. “Although our partners and the coalition have made mistakes that harmed civilians, we have never targeted them — not once.”
Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, the commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, also said recent civilian casualties were not the result of any change in the rules that govern the use of U.S. airpower or authorities granted to U.S. commanders.
A more aggressive Iraqi approach allowed U.S. military advisers, who accompany the Iraqis in Mosul, to more quickly and effectively coordinate airstrikes, Martin said.
In report released Tuesday, Amnesty International said the spike in civilian casualties in Mosul suggests the U.S.-led coalition was not taking adequate precautions to protect civilians. It cited a second strike Saturday that it said killed up to 150 people.
Evidence gathered on the ground in Mosul “points to an alarming pattern of U.S.led coalition airstrikes which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside,” the report said. It said any failure to take precautions to prevent civilian casualties would be “in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, the spokesman of the U.N. human rights office, Rupert Colville, said the agency has tallied the deaths of at least 307 people between Feb. 17 and March 22, including 140 from the March 17 airstrike.
Islamic State militants are brazenly using civilians as human shields, Colville said, and he urged the coalition to “avoid this trap.”
In both Syria and Iraq, local politicians and activists say the high numbers of deaths are spreading alarm among civilians and sewing distrust of the U.S.-backed campaign advancing toward their homes.
“People used to feel safe when the American planes were in the sky, because they knew they didn’t hit civilians,” said Hussam Essa, a founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which monitors violence in Raqqa province. “They were only afraid of the Russian and regime planes. But now they are very afraid of the American airstrikes. It is only American planes that are active, and they are targeting everywhere.”
Civilians, humanitarian groups and monitoring officials have repeatedly warned of the possibility of increased civilian casualties in western Mosul due to the higher density of the population there and the increased reliance on airstrikes and artillery.