Over 40,000 Civilians Massacred in Battle for Mosul

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

In all US wars of aggression, human lives don't matter - the safety and welfare of civilians entirely ignored.

Claims otherwise are bald-faced lies. A duplicitous Pentagon statement said "(w)e set the highest standards for protecting civilians."

"(O)ur dedication, diligence, and discipline in prosecuting our combat operations while protecting civilians, is without precedent in recorded history of warfare."

Cold, hard, indisputable facts on the ground reveal otherwise. Millions of casualties in all US wars of aggression are clear evidence of its imperial brutality.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein condemned what he called the "massive loss of civilian lives in Mosul." The appalling body count mounted daily throughout months of battle.

According to intelligence reported by The (London) Independent, over 40,000 civilians were massacred during months of fighting in Mosul - mostly from indiscriminate US terror-bombing.

The Independent: "(D)evastation in the city is huge: the closer one gets to the fighting in the centre, the greater the signs of destruction from air strikes." 

"Wherever Isis made a stand, Iraqi forces called in the US-led coalition to use its massive firepower to turn whole blocks into heaps of rubble and smashed masonry."

"(M)any districts are deserted and only passable because bulldozers have cut a path through the debris."

Likely tens of thousands of corpses remain buried under rubble, their identity never to be known. Everyone in Mosul lost a relative or friend. Sporadic fighting continues.

Former senior Iraqi foreign minister, later finance minister Hoshyar Zebari said countless numbers of bodies "are still buried under the rubble. The level of human suffering is immense."

"Kurdish intelligence believes that over 40,000 civilians have been killed as a result of massive firepower used against them" - mainly indiscriminate US terror-bombing.

The US-installed puppet regime in Baghdad "is indifferent to what has happened," he stressed, adding "the soul of Mosul has gone and its iconic buildings are destroyed."

"(A)n unimaginable level of human suffering (occurred) with more than one million people displaced."

ISIS wasn't defeated in Mosul. Washington redeployed most of its fighters to Syria. Along with other terrorist groups, they're used as imperial foot soldiers in both countries and elsewhere.

The scourge they represent remains. Endless US wars continue, defenseless civilians paying the greatest price.

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