The massacre in Mosul
27 March 2017
The US-led “coalition” has admitted that its forces carried out the March 17 air strike in Mosul—ostensibly against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters—that slaughtered as many as 200 civilians, including numerous children. The admission was only made in the face of evidence provided by survivors to Iraqi journalists, whose accounts were reported by sections of the Western press.
The massacre is being described as possibly the largest single death toll inflicted by a coalition air strike since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The grim reality, however, is that very little is known about the impact of the assault on Mosul, which the Iraqi government began last October under pressure from the Obama administration. Coverage of the offensive has been heavily censored and marked by a propaganda-like character. Almost universally, the fighting has been portrayed as a “heroic” battle by Iraqi forces against the “barbaric” ISIS. Little attention has been given to the fate of hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped inside the besieged city.
News of the March 17 carnage began filtering out as the Trump administration’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and representatives of 62 other countries gloated in Washington over the “success” of their “campaign for the lasting defeat of ISIS.” A March 22 statement cynically declared that the “Global Coalition” against ISIS underscored “the need for safeguarding civilians” and applauded “the Iraqi government for protecting civilians in conflict zones.”
In fact, in February, the Trump administration let it be known it would sharply escalate the onslaught on Mosul in order to end the fighting—regardless of how many innocent lives were claimed. Unnamed US officials…