Posted on 03/28/2017 9:04:58 PM PDT by Mariner
MOSUL, Iraq — A sharp rise in the number of civilians reported killed in U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is spreading panic, deepening mistrust and triggering accusations that the United States and its partners may be acting without sufficient regard for lives of noncombatants.
The increase comes as local ground forces backed by air support from a U.S.-led coalition close in on the Islamic State’s two main urban bastions — Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
In front-line neighborhoods in western Mosul, families described cowering in basements for weeks as bombs rained down around them and the Islamic State battled from their rooftops. Across the border in Raqqa, residents desperately trying to flee before an offensive begins are being blocked by the militants, who frequently use civilians as human shields.
Throughout his election campaign, President Trump pledged to target Islamic State militants more aggressively, criticizing the U.S. air campaign for being too “gentle” and asking for a reassessment of battlefield rules. The United States has denied there has been any shift and defended the conduct of its campaign.
But figures compiled by monitoring organizations and interviews with residents paint an increasingly bloody picture, with the number of casualties in March already surpassing records for a single month.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It’s not fake news.
It’s good news.
Like CNN embeds? ‘F$*$(ing Birds!’
And McJuan and Linda Gramnasty are annoyed.
Agree ...... When the enemy is getting they’re asses kicked they start throwing dead children and women at the presstitute propaganda corp ..... Yes we are winning, no we are not intentionally targeting noncombatants.
It’s hard for a journalist to survive, much less make a living in those countries without being Moslem. That last journalist(s) who tried that in Egypt when the Moslem Brotherhood were ascendant were abused.
People are starving in Africa now too that Trump is president. Not one child starved under Omama. Watch the reports.
What? Iraq and Syria have been calm the past 8 years, and Trump gets elected and all of a sudden panic spreads? Mighty insightful, WaPo!
Wait a sec...the news yesterday was that the Russkies are wiping out ISIS at a furious rate over there. How can they hit the enemy and all we can hit are civilians? Is there an agenda at WaPo?
It also incentivizes the civilian population to resist ISIS as the lesser of two evils with the other being us breaking Uncle Sam’s boot off in their ass.
If they don’;t want people to die- then they need to surrender- plain and simple
Epic famine there. Trumpian low pressure system must’ave sucked all of the food off the continent dontcha know?
More BS. This is propaganda by the other side. The strikes are having an impact and the enemy is trying to sway public opinion to get them stopped.
My sentiments exactly. During the Obama years we rarely heard about any of the civilians being killed. He even droned a US citizen on purpose and they didn’t bat an eye. GLARING DOUBLE STANDARD, WAPO!
The death rates are mostly from ISIS killing the people on their way out.....they don’t intend to leave anyone alive if they can get them beforehand.
War is always bloody.....when they end this what should be said is how many they saved for it not continuing another five years.
So predictable, right on time
...”U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is spreading panic, deepening mistrust and triggering accusations”...article reads
I doubt that very much....those people have lived centuries in tribal wars and conflicts among themselves...they understand armed conflict of any kind brings with it death. Furthermore there is nothing that would make them trust the “infidel”....no matter what is done or not done.
Every illegal combatant is subject to summary battlefield execution, and I see no legitimate reason not to deliver it, as a general rule. Maybe they'll cut out the war crimes and then the civilians will be safer. I'm not letting some Islamist throw a burka over the heads of any of my kids to sell them as sex slaves just because he hid behind his own.
Rumor is that ISIS forced a couple of hundred civilians into a site, and lured in an airstrike, as a propaganda weapon.
No one alleges, or believes, that the Coalition is targeting civilians - just raising a stink and waving the bloody shirt over the bodies of the dead.
Have they flooded the social media yet with dead bloodied children from other conflicts yet?
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