Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 29 March 2017

US denies loosening rules for avoiding civilian casualties

SINAN SALAHEDDIN tions as it helps Iraqi forces about the level of Ameri- did it — and I’d say there the ministry’s spokesman,
ROBERT BURNS try to retake the city. can involvement. He said is at least a fair chance we Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool.
Associated Press Townsend acknowledged U.S. officials were assessing did — it was an uninten- IS planned the incident to
BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. air- the U.S. conducted mul- the possibility that IS forced tional accident of war,” “impact the civilians, to
strikes probably played a tiple airstrikes in the area civilians to gather there to he said.Iraq’s ministry of inflame the public and to
role in the deaths of doz- of the explosions. That, act as human shields or to defense also blamed IS for convey a wrong message
ens of civilians in Mosul coupled with initial inqui- lure the U.S. into attacking. the high civilian death toll. to the world that the joint
earlier this month, U.S. and ries done by U.S. techni- “It sure looks like they “As our forces advanced forces and the interna-
Iraqi military officials ac- tional coalition are behind
knowledged Tuesday, but the killing and bombings,”
they denied the rules for Rasool said. The fight for
avoiding civilian casual- western Mosul began in
ties have been loosened February after Iraqi secu-
despite a recent spike in rity forces pushed IS out of
civilian casualties. Speak- the eastern side of the Tigris
ing from Baghdad to re- River city. In recent weeks,
porters at the Pentagon, IS defenders have packed
the top commander of U.S. into neighborhoods with
forces in Iraq said an ongo- narrow streets and trapped
ing investigation may re- civilians, Townsend said.
veal a more complicated “It is there that the enemy
explanation for the March has invested two-and-a-
17 explosion that residents half years of defensive
say killed at least 100 peo- preparations,” he said,
ple, including the possibility calling it the “toughest
that Islamic State militants phase” of the war.
rigged the building with “I think that’s really the
explosives after forcing ci- explanation for the civil-
vilians inside. Army Lt. Gen. ian casualties,” Townsend
Stephen Townsend said added. “Although our
a recent spate of civilian partners and the coalition
casualties in Mosul was In this Friday, March 24, 2017, photo, civil protection rescue teams work on the debris of a de- have made mistakes that
“fairly predictable” given stroyed house to recover the body of people killed during fighting between Iraqi security forces harmed civilians, we have
the densely populated ur- and Islamic State militants on the western side of Mosul, Iraq. Iraqis in the northern city of Mosul never targeted them —
ban neighborhoods that are still burying their dead after a U.S. airstrike allegedly killed more than 100 people last week, not once.”
the IS fighters are defend- and rights groups are expressing alarm over a recent spike in civilian deaths. Iraqi officials have Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin,
ing against Iraqi govern- defended their conduct in the war against the Islamic State group, and their advice to civilians to the commander of coali-
ment troops. But the civil- shelter in place as U.S.-backed forces seek to drive the extremists from their last urban stronghold tion ground forces in Iraq,
in the country.
ian deaths cannot be at- (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) also said recent civilian
tributed to any loosening casualties were not the re-
of American military rules cal experts who visited the were,” Townsend said. An- toward that area to liber- sult of any change in the
of combat, he said, and scene, led him to say: “My other possibility that was ate it, the explosive-lad- rules that govern the use of
Washington hasn’t decid- initial assessment is that being examined was that en tanker truck headed U.S. airpower or authorities
ed to tolerate greater risk we probably had a role in the militants filled the build- toward our advancing granted to U.S. command-
of civilian casualties in U.S. these casualties.” ing with explosives, he said. troops, it was targeted by ers. A more aggressive Iraqi
airstrikes. But Townsend said the In the most extensive U.S. an airstrike which led to a approach allowed U.S. mil-
Amnesty International on type of munitions used explanation of what is huge explosion. The ex- itary advisers, who accom-
Tuesday said the rising by the U.S. in the airstrikes known about the event, plosion damaged number pany the Iraqis in Mosul, to
death toll suggested the should not have been able Townsend stressed that no of buildings, including the more quickly and effec-
U.S.-led coalition wasn’t to bring down the entire one should think it was a one where IS crammed tively coordinate airstrikes,
taking adequate precau- building, raising questions deliberate U.S. act. “If we about 130 civilians,” said Martin said. q

Cheney blasts Russia’s alleged interference in US election

NEW DELHI (AP) — Former conference in New Delhi. activity that we’ll see going Donald Trump to power. Cheney said these threats
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said the Cold War forward,” he said. Among the other threats come at a time when the
Cheney has criticized Rus- was long over but Putin is But he also warned that faced by the United States, U.S. military is at a “signifi-
sia’s alleged interference on a course to re-establish Russia should not “underes- Cheney listed an aggres- cantly diminished level” fol-
in the U.S. presidential elec- Russian power following the timate the weight that we sive China, North Korea, lowing eight years of bud-
tion, calling it a hostile act. collapse of the former Sovi- as Americans assign at Rus- Iran and the terror threat get cuts under the Obama
Russian President Vladimir et Union. sia’s attempts to interfere in posed by the Islamic State administration.
Putin made a serious at- “Putin has aspirations of try- our democratic processes.” group. The U.S. budget debate
tempt to interfere in the ing to correct what he sees Cheney’s accusation He described North Ko- in the coming weeks will
2016 election and other as a disaster. He has designs comes at a time when both rea as the “most danger- focus on how to allocate
democratic processes in on the Baltics. He wanted the U.S. Senate and House ous part of the world with more funds to rebuild the
America, Cheney said. Crimea and he took it. And of Representatives intelli- an unpredictable head of military and restore the re-
“In some quarters, that he is trying to undermine gence committees are in- government” who is devel- lationships that the United
would be considered an NATO,” Cheney said. Rus- vestigating possible Russian oping nuclear warheads States had with its allies and
act of war,” Cheney said sian cyber interference is interference in the elec- and missiles to add to his adversaries in the past, he
in a speech Monday at a “the kind of conduct and tion that brought President stockpile. said.q