The US Is Sharing Hard Lessons from Urban Combat in Iraq and Syria as Israel Prepares to Invade Gaza

WASHINGTON — The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods, where militants use civilians as human shields, brings back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. can paint a vivid picture of civilian slaughter. During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000 people were killed, including at least 3,200 civilians from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the fall of the Islamic State group in July 2017, according to an Associated Press investigation. About the same number of civilians were killed or taken hostage by militants and used as human shields as they fled the city.

Underscoring that priority, the U.S. has sent a team of military advisers to Israel, including Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State group. Glynn, who also served in Fallujah during some of the most heated urban combat there at the height of the Iraq War, will be able to advise the Israelis on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare.

Austin was blunt both publicly and privately that as Israelis plan their military operations, including any ground assault into Gaza, they must take into account the safety of civilians. Retired Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who took over U.S. Central Command in 2016 when Austin retired and oversaw the operations, said the most important 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, but how the military does it.

Militarily, he said, Israel is seeing a more sophisticated and better armed opponent than the Islamic State was in Syria and Iraq.

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