[RT] Human Rights Watch, ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
from Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS, formerly ISIS/ISIS).
"All warring parties should cease using explosive weapons with wide area effects and inherently indiscriminate weapons in densely populated west Mosul. ISIS’s unlawful use of civilians as ’human shields’ and the difficulty of identifying civilians in buildings increases the risk of civilian casualties."
Iraqi forces, with air support provided by the US-led coalition, has been engaged in fierce urban combat, trying to wrestle Iraq’s second city back from the jihadists since October last year.
The remaining Islamic State forces, who Iraqis believe are readying to die in battle, are housed in fortified positions in the densely-built western side of the city, where civilian houses have been booby-trapped and turned into passage ways for the jihadists.
"Thousands of families are trapped by ISIS in west Mosul, with its fighters preventing civilians from fleeing to safety," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"Iraqi and coalition forces should recognize that in the crowded Old City, using explosive weapons with wide area effects puts civilians at excessive risk."