(ANTIMEDIA) — After the United States and its proxy armies “liberated” the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this year, the world’s superpower unsurprisingly turned a blind eye to a massacre that took place soon after. As the Guardian aptly phrased it, the aftermath was an “orgy” of killing.
The Guardian explains that it was the brutal conduct of the Iraqi Armed Forces that enabled Iraq to successfully liberate Mosul from ISIS’ dominance, stating:
“One of the factors that had aided Isis’s takeover of Mosul was the conduct of the Iraqi army and security forces stationed in the city, who behaved like sectarian occupation forces, mistreating and detaining the population at will. In the early stages of the battle for Mosul, the Iraqi army and police, keen to change their prevailing image, had taken care to preserve the lives of civilians. Soldiers and officers used their vehicles to help people evacuate their homes, and offered water and medical help. But the Old City was seen as the last refuge of Isis, and almost every inhabitant was treated as a suspect. Fighting-age men from other parts of the city, and those with injuries, were detained on the spot. The rest were sent to detention centres, where their identity would be checked.”
According to the non-partisan monitoring group Airwars, the civilian death toll in Mosul may have exceeded 10,000. Those who were fortunate enough to survive coalition bombings were apparently treated as suspected ISIS members, and the result was a host of crimes that should make The Hague cringe.
The Guardian explains:
“Locals, keen to exact revenge on those they held responsible for the miseries and destruction of the last three years, started denouncing not only members of Isis and their families who had tried to blend in with fleeing civilians, but also any man of fighting age who came from a different city, bore the marks of injury, or simply looked suspicious.” [emphasis added]
Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty International, has already called for an independent inquiry into these crimes. Allen stated:
“Deliberately killing fighters who have surrendered or who have been captured is absolutely prohibited under international law. Needless to say, killing civilians in these circumstances is also utterly unlawful – a war crime.”
The Iraqi military’s behavior during and after this liberation campaign is no secret to the U.S. or the mainstream media. Iraqi soldiers were allegedly throwing captured ISIS fighters off buildings as far back as July of this year. The Guardian also details one example of a suspected ISIS operative who vehemently claimed he was a medic, only to be beaten, thrown out of a window, and gunned down on the street below. As one Iraqi military officer explained:
“He is my fifth [killing] since the start of [the battle of] Mosul… Al-Qaida have one good principle: if they suspect someone, or have the tiniest evidence against him, they execute him. They say that if he was guilty, he deserved it, and if he was innocent, his blood will be purged and later he will go to heaven. I follow the same principle.”
Never mind that thousands of civilians died in the aerial campaign during the first few months of Trump’s presidency. Once the city was formally liberated, the Guardian explains, the real “orgy” of killing began:
“Night after night, in ruined houses, makeshift cells and the dark streets of Mosul, those identified as members of Isis were tortured and executed. Jubilant Iraqi soldiers filmed themselves beating and shooting prisoners.”
The United States has barely given this issue a passing mention, even as it attempts to denigrate Syria for allegedly doing the same thing. One thing is certain, however — the United States has brought chaos to Iraq and the large city of Mosul, and liberation may, in fact, be the wrong word to describe the results.
From the Guardian:
“‘Sometimes we do things and we know we are breaking the law,’ the commander told me one afternoon as he sat sipping his tea. He lit a cigarette and continued: ‘My general tells me: ‘Don’t bring me any prisoners – if you know they are Daesh, then deal with them from your end.’ My soldiers call me and say: ‘We have found a man’, and I tell them: ‘Kill him.’”
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