The U.S. military says it has video evidence that shows the Islamic State has been rounding up groups of Iraqis in Mosul, forcing them into buildings at gunpoint, and then using the buildings as firing positions.
The motivation is not so much to prevent U.S. airstrikes, but to trick the coalition into causing mass casualties, and creating a perception the U.S.-led bombing campaign is careless and callous, according to the chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
“What you see now is not the use of civilians as human shields. Now it is something much more sinister,” said Army Col. Joseph Scrocca, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve.
“ISIS is smuggling civilians into buildings, so we won’t see them, and trying to bait the coalition to attack to take advantage of the public outcry and deter action in the future,” Scrocca said.
The Pentagon says a video recorded by a U.S. drone flying overhead,shows a group of civilians being marched into a building at gunpoint, after which one was executed on the spot.
“We caught this on video yesterday as armed ISIS fighters forced civilians into a building, killing one who resisted, and then used that building as a fighting position against the CTS, [Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service],” Scrocca said.
The video is being declassified and will soon be made public, the U.S. military said.
The Pentagon says the authority to call in airstrikes to protect troops on the ground was delegated to selected officers in the field in December, as a result of complaints from Iraqi units who liberated eastern Mosul that it was taking too long to call in airstrikes to support their offensive.
But the U.S. maintains the December changes in the rules of engagement did not in any way increase the tolerance for the deaths of innocents.
“The delegation of some strike authorities was done to provide more agile and responsive support to the Iraqi forces,” Scrocca said. “These procedural changes in no way reflect a [higher] tolerance for civilian casualties.”
The U.S. is now looking at how to adjust its tactics given the evidence ISIS is forcing large groups of Iraqis to remain as hostages on the front lines of an urban combat zone in Mosul’s old city area.
“We’re not going to give up because it’s hard. We’re going to crack this nut, we’re going to figure it out,” Scrocca said. “Our goal is always to have zero civilian casualties, and if we can push off a strike, so that we don’t kill civilians, that’s what we’re going to do. If we have to use a different type of munition, then that’s what we are going to do.”
The senior U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, has ordered a full investigation of the coalition bombing in the area where more than 100 civilians died March 17 because he says it is clear the U.S. strike contributed to the deaths in some way.
One of the things investigators are trying to determine is whether the building the hostages are being held in is booby-trapped, rigged with explosives. “The munition that we used should not have collapsed an entire building,” Townsend told reporters Tuesday.
The U.S.-led coalition dropped more than 700 bombs in a 10-day period this month, because the advancing Iraqi troops were facing fierce resistance and taking heavy casualties in the tough fighting in the dense urban terrain that favors the defender not the attackers.
In the effort to retake the western part of Mosul, Iraqi forces have had 284 troops killed and a little over 1,600 wounded, according to U.S. Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command.
“There is a legal and moral imperative to protect put our own forces and accomplish the mission against an evil enemy that is equally important to protecting civilians,” said Scrocca. “We will continue to assess and adjust our tactics to account for civilians on the battlefield while striking ISIS whenever and whenever we safely can.”
The U.S. military now estimates there are fewer that 1,000 ISIS fighters left in Mosul, holding out against a force of 100,000 Iraqis.
“ISIS is in a lot of trouble,” Scrocca said.
