Daily Times

Mosul, the second largest city of Iraq, is on the brink of another humanitarian catastrophe as the Islamic State (IS) militants have taken 550 families from villages around the city to use them as possible human shields in a last-ditch effort to hang on to their stronghold in the strategic Iraqi city.

On the ground, IS jihadists are facing an attack by Iraqi forces. The humanitarian crisis started as extremists carried out attacks in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, likely to divert thousands of Iraqi troops from Mosul, where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a “caliphate” in June 2014. The battle for Mosul, which was held by the Islamic State since 2014, began on October 16 and has since intensified. According to the Iraqi military and US-led coalition, the operation to retake Mosul may last weeks or even months. Reportedly, the battle for Mosul is decisive, both militarily and ideologically, because it is about “stabbing Islamic State in its very heart.” The UN says Mosul could require the “largest and most complex” humanitarian relief operation in the world, with up to one million people forced from their homes as a result of the operation against Islamic State militants. There are already almost 3.3 million displaced Iraqis — approximately 10 percent of the population — according to the UN.

Since 2011, the IS has been a major force in Iraq and Syria, surprising the world by making dramatic territory gains. It was aided by an influx of foreign fighters from around the world such as the UK. By June 2014, IS had captured major cities — Raqqa in Syria, and Mosul and Fallujah in Iraq. IS’s rapid advance contributed to an escalating refugee crisis, and its repeated atrocities on hostages sickened the world. But in the last two years, IS has lost some territory to government forces, aided by western coalition airstrikes. In 2016, the Iraqi government regained Ramadi and Fallujah, and the Syrian government re-captured ancient Palmyra. But IS still retains control of Raqqa and Mosul.

These are the direct consequences of the US adventurism in Iraq. The invasion of Iraq was entirely unjustified on US’s concocted premise: Saddam Hussein’s alleged production of weapons of mass destruction, and his supposed support for international terrorists, neither of which was true. The US should have never attacked Iraq and meddled in the affairs of other countries. The war cost trillions of dollars and human casualties were unimaginably high. As of June 29, 2016, according to the US Department of Defence casualty website, there were 4,424 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile), and 31,952 wounded in action as a result of the Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As of today, the situation is very tense in Iraq. Rampant human rights violations and the killing of civilians have alarmed and perturbed almost all world bodies. This war in Iraq is causing genocide of Iraqis only because of miscalculated policies of world powers like the US and their inability to control the communal war in Iraq. Since the start of the war, media played a negative role and supported US claims about weapons of mass destruction. Even now, media is not giving due coverage to the plight of Iraqis who are living their lives under the fear of death every day. Instead of waiting for the occurrence of another human catastrophe, world powers need to come forward and rescue hundreds of Mosul families from the clutches of IS monsters and disrupt all sources of support to militants.*