On Saturday, the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Mosul reiterated what they said at the beginning of the week which was that they were likely the cause of the deaths of at least 229 civilians who were killed in an airstrike on March 17. Blasting News reported on their assessment in an article which also said that the operation against the Islamic State militants that has been going since October of 2016, had been halted while they figure out how they can continue the battle without inflicting more casualties.
In a report by the New York Times titled, "U.S.-Led Coalition Counts 229 Civilian Deaths Before Mosul Strike", it explains that the numbers coming from the coalition are small compared to others coming from eye witness reports and human rights groups which state that since March 28, 2,831 civilians have been killed by airstrikes, totaled from the beginning of the coalition fight in Iraq since August 2014.
In another report by Blasting News, it also said that airstrikes were also being conducted by the Iraqi airforce, so when the air strike happened, initially, many felt Iraqi forces were to blame.
Coalition working on transparency
The New York Times article made the comparison of the battle against ISIS under the current Trump and the former Obama administration saying that the operation in Mosul is very much still operating from the momentum of the former administration, even though there is an expectation that the operation will get a boost by Trump who wants more attacks against the Islamic State. It also says that the spokesman for Central Command Col. John J. Thomas says that they're working to be more transparent, saying that they're sharing information from unresolved cases, many which still haven't been covered by many media outlets.
Even if this is true, Central Command is still being scrutinized by people such as the director of Airwars, Chris Woods, who says that CENTCOM are still lagging behind. He says that they're not able to keep up with the reports coming from eyewitnesses on the ground.
More aggressive campaign
The article also says that according to some critics, the firepower being used by the coalition is so extensive that it puts civilians in danger with military officials saying that 700 bombs and missiles had been used with 400 more strikes using laser-guided missiles.
This was said to be all in one recent week. But the Air Strikes are in this case said to entirely be a U.S. operation as they are not engaged on the ground. That is entirely left to Iraqi troops who have also incurred losses in the fight.
Russia, who has never been part of the discussion on the battle against ISIS until their involvement with Syria, have weighed in with their own criticism of the U.S.
over the Civilian Casualties wondering why the U.S. is only now revealing a new tactic used by the terrorist group. The mentioned Blasting News articles include a description of this tactic, which is to herd civilians into a building and lure coalition forces to it by opening fire on the troops and directing air strikes toward them. With the March 17 air strikes, there was discussion as to whether this was the case and also, if air strikes triggered a detonation device put in by the militants.
