WASHINGTON: The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods, the place militants use civilians as human shields, brings again searing reminiscences of the lethal battles the U.S.-led coalition fought towards the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his army leaders, that intense combat and the hundreds of civilians killed in airstrikes and neighborhood gunfights in Mosul and Raqqa are lessons to be shared as Israel prepares for a potential floor invasion towards Hamas.
“In our conversations with the Israelis, and as we’ve made very clear, we’re continuing to highlight, the importance of mitigating civilian casualties and ensuring that … things like safety corridors are thought through,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, mentioned Tuesday.
The U.S. can paint a vivid image of civilian slaughter. During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000 individuals had been killed, together with no less than 3,200 civilians from airstrikes, artillery hearth or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the autumn of the Islamic State group in July 2017, in accordance to an Associated Press investigation. About the identical variety of civilians had been killed or taken hostage by militants and used as human shields as they fled the town.
Austin, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Eric Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, and different senior army commanders all hung out in the area round then and watched the violence unfold. They had been keenly conscious of efforts to arrange humanitarian corridors and selections to pause operations whereas civilians had been warned to transfer away. So as they’re talking to their Israeli counterparts on an virtually day by day foundation, they’re sharing recommendation on the challenges of urban warfare, the threats of booby traps and roadside bombs and the drive to shield the harmless whereas rooting out insurgents hidden in colleges, mosques and houses.
“Sharing our 20 years of lessons learned is occurring up and down the chain,” mentioned Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey, the spokesman for Brown.
Underscoring that precedence, the U.S. has despatched a crew of army advisers to Israel, together with Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who helped lead particular operations forces towards the Islamic State group. Glynn, who additionally served in Fallujah throughout among the most heated urban combat there on the top of the Iraq War, might be in a position to advise the Israelis on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare.
“These officials include Gen. Glenn, have experience when it comes to urban combat,” Ryder instructed reporters on Tuesday. “They’re in there temporarily with their military expertise to just go through and discuss some of the hard questions that the IDF should consider as they plan various scenarios.”
In discussions final week with Israeli protection and authorities leaders in Tel Aviv, Austin recalled his experiences heading U.S. Central Command in the course of the first two years of the marketing campaign to defeat the Islamic State group. He talked about lessons discovered, together with the conclusion that the world is watching, officers aware of the talks mentioned.
Austin was blunt each publicly and privately that as Israelis plan their army operations, together with any floor assault into Gaza, they have to take into consideration the protection of civilians.
“There are some lessons learned that we will be more than happy to share with our allies here in terms of operating effectively in dense urban terrain, creating safe humanitarian corridors, making sure that we’re thoughtful about how we shape the battle and making sure that our objectives are well defined,” Austin instructed reporters.
A RAND report launched final yr discovered that whereas the U.S. emphasised the necessity to reduce civilian hurt in the devastating 2017 siege to liberate Raqqa, Syria, there have been hundreds of casualties. It advisable that the U.S. army modify its planning, coaching, focusing on and use of weapons in order to higher keep away from widespread civilian deaths and harm.
Retired Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who took over U.S. Central Command in 2016 when Austin retired and oversaw the operations, mentioned crucial message for the Israelis — which has been delivered by Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden — is that it’s not what Israel does in its pledge to destroy Hamas, however how the army does it.
“How you orchestrate this campaign really matters,” mentioned Votel. “And they have to do this in a way that reflects values and the concern for innocent Palestinians who themselves are being held hostage by Hamas.”
He added that there are lots of similarities and some key variations between these missions and a possible assault into Gaza. Hamas, he mentioned, is higher armed, with extra subtle explosives and different weapons equipped by Iran. And the labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza is much more developed and prolonged than these seen in Raqqa.
Militarily, he mentioned, Israel is seeing a extra subtle and higher armed opponent than the Islamic State was in Syria and Iraq.
“There’s a difference between being dug in, going to ground and what we are seeing in Gaza, which is an underground architecture that connects different parts of Gaza and allows people to move supplies, people and other things, and enhance critical functions underground,” mentioned Votel. “I don’t think ISIS got to that particular level of sophistication.”
He mentioned the U.S. and coalition allies had extra time to put together for the battle to retake Mosul. And he mentioned that as the coalition moved down the Euphrates River, it stopped and paused operations quite a few occasions in order to meet with native tribal leaders and strive to get harmless civilians out of the road of fireside.
The brutality of all of it is one other factor Austin recollects, as properly as the necessity to cease militants even as they’re embedded deeply into urban civilian areas.
“In countering ISIS I felt as if we were staring evil in the eye,” Austin mentioned. “It was truly evil. And what we’ve seen from Hamas, it takes that evil to another level. And so that’s the first thing that we need to remember and consider.”
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Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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