Murky Picture of Death Figures begins to Emerge from US/Iraqi Mosul Siege

March 17th, 2017

Awake Goy

Murky Picture of Death Figures begins to Emerge from US/Iraqi Mosul Siege

By Robert Barsocchini
washingtonsblog.com

A prominent Iraqi Sunni politician, Khamis Khanjar, who is in touch with civilians on the ground in the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, which is being bombarded by US airstrikes and US-trained Iraqi ground forces, told Washington this week that

…a sudden surge in civilian casualties … [is threatening] to undermine the effort to crush the [Islamic State] militants.

…at least 3,500 civilians have been killed since the push into the western side of the [city] last month.

…the mounting casualties came mainly from air strikes and indiscriminate shelling of heavily crowded neighborhoods as the U.S trained elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) forces push deeper into the Old City and city center.

“This will have dangerous repercussions on the post-Mosul phase..there will be anger by residents and DAESH will benefit from the large human losses…”

Reuters adds the Iraqi and US regimes are refusing to provide death figures.

A US official claimed early on in the US’s unprovoked 2003 invasion of Iraq that the US does not “do body counts.” However, “estimates as of December of 2004 revealed that at least 6,000 Iraqi citizens in Fallujah had been killed, and one-third of the city had been destroyed.”

Of the similar Syrian/Russian coalition bombing campaign against the al Qaeda stronghold of East Aleppo, Syria, Gelhorn prize-winning journalist Gareth Porter recently noted the “Aleppo Health Directorate, a local monitoring group, estimated that 400 civilians had been killed in the first three weeks of bombing” while the “United Nations put the death toll at 360.”

Robert J. Barsocchini is an independent researcher and reporter whose interest in propaganda and global force dynamics arose from working as a cross-cultural intermediary for large corporations in the film and Television industry. His work has been cited, published, or followed by numerous professors, economists, lawyers, military and intelligence veterans, and journalists.