Moscow- Russia had found opportunity in exploiting the recently launched Mosul offensive to draw parallels with the military campaign it launched against Aleppo rebel-held areas. Russian raids in Syria had killed a large number of civilians, receiving international condemnation and threats of sanctions.
Russia-based media broadcasted footage retrieved from both Mosul’s battle and Aleppo—Syria’s authoritarian regime which waged war against rebels is being wrongly portrayed as equal to Mosul’s fight against terror group ISIS.
Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Tehran’s proxy in Iraq, had given away Mosul to ISIS. Maliki was accused of “negligence” of the army as they withdrew from the city, leaving it to ISIS control.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was the first to make the comparison between the two campaigns. He cited both to call upon the inevitable death of civilians brought about by essential broad air strikes.
Mr. Putin compared Russia staged raids in Aleppo to those expected to be carried out by the United States led coalition over Mosul territory.
“We hope that our American partners, and in this case our French partners as well, will act selectively and do everything to minimize — and even better, to rule out — civilian casualties,” Mr. Putin told a news conference after a summit of developing economies in India on Sunday.
“We of course are not going to fan hysteria over this matter, like our partners in the West do, because we understand that we need to fight terrorism, and that there is no other way apart from active fighting,” he added.
Opportunist Moscow media jumped at the analysis molding the theory into a claim, and backing it with statements made by Russian army officials who drew military similarities between the Mosul and Aleppo operations.
Mr. Putin made his remarks in a response to recent attempts by the UK and U.S. said they were considering sanctions against Russia and Syria in response to their bombardment of Aleppo.
Russia Relates Mosul Offensive to its Aleppo Killing of Civilians: ‘A Necessary Evil’
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