US airstrikes on Islamic State occupied town in Iraq reportedly kills 22 civilians

A US airstrike against the town of Hit held by the Islamic State killed 22 civilians and wounded many more as an apartments and a market were hit according to local residents.

Residents believe the target was a building not far down the road but it was not hit, indicating that the strike was an error. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) according to one source simply said that an attack west of Ramadi hit an ISIS-held building. A Kuwait source quotes CENTCOM as reporting several ISIS-held buildings being hit: An airstrike in western Ramadi destroyed three ISIL-held buildings and damaged two more, destroyed two ISIL anti-aircraft artillery pieces, and destroyed an ISIL unit, the statement said. Hit is a strategic town in the Euphrates River Valley in Anbar province.
 Major Curtis Kellogg a spokesperson for CENTCOM said there was no evidence that there were any civilian casualties in the Hit bombings. However this type of blanket statement is a standard response. The same is true for most cases in Afghanistan as well where NATO airstrikes have killed civilians. Even when Afghan officials confirm reports NATO or ISAF officials often refuse to change their account unless forced to do so by compelling evidence to the contrary.
The reports of casualties are not from Islamic State media but from the National Iraqi News Agency. The Agency claimed that US coalition forces bombs hit a market and that four children were among the dead and that the planes also bombed an "apartment building inhabited with families". A "security source" claimed that hundreds of families have fled Hit as bombings escalate.
 A resident of Raqqa, the main center held by IS in Syria, Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi told BBC: "The people are against IS, but if the USA bombs Raqqa, we will be with IS against the USA." He welcomed the bombing of the Tabqa air base and the group's headquarters in central Raqqa but claimed: ."Islamic State want these air strikes, because they know if it's just air strikes without forces on the ground, they will not fall down, and a lot of fighters will join them to fight the Americans." No doubt there will be similar responses in areas of Iraq controlled by the Islamic State especially since many of the Sunnis who cooperate with IS are former supporters of Hussein and will also see the US as simply agent's of the detested Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.
No doubt the U.S. wlll try to create another Awakening Movement or Sons of Iraq to counter the radical jihadists. The groups were bankrolled by the U.S. and as soon as the paycheck vanished everything fell apart: Due to Shiʻite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's refusal to fully integrate the Sons of Iraq into the Iraqi Security Services, "by 2013, the Sons of Iraq were virtually nonexistent". Sunnis formerly serving with the group either became unemployed or joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.[4] An interview with a former leader of one group shows why it may be difficult for the US to enlist their help in fighting the IS or ISIS, the aging general said: If ISIS were to show up here, I would step aside and point them in the direction of the Green Zone,” Shibib said, referring to the former U.S.-run enclave in central Baghdad that is now the seat of the Iraqi government. “If they have any quarrel, they can take it up with them.”
CENTCOM reports that since August 8 the US has launched at least 340 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria combined but almost three quarters were in Iraq. Few details are usually given on aircraft used or numbers killed and wounded in the strikes. While the US may be generous in providing airstrikes it is stingy in providing refugee status. Journalists Lauren Gambino and Raya Jalabi claim that the US only accepted 38 Syrian refugees in 2013.
While US bombings may cause civilian deaths they no doubt are an "improvement" over the bombing , including barrel bombs, and random shelling of urban areas by Iraqi government forces. Other countries including Gulf States and Great Britain have joined the US in the bombings. The appended video shows a UK airstrike.

Dahr Jamail: On the Awakening Councils conflict in Iraq

This is from truthout.
This is another instance of blowback. While the councils helped defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq they also set the stage for the present confrontation with the Shia dominated government. It remains to be seen whether the situation is defused or if more Sunnis return to insurgency.

The Storm Widens
Monday 06 April 2009
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t Report

One week after Iraqi government forces arrested an Awakening Group (commonly referred to as Sons of Iraq, al-Sahwa) leader, Adil al-Mashhadani, head of a patrol unit in central Baghdad's Fadhil neighborhood in Baghdad, sparking gun battles that raged for hours between US-backed Iraqi forces and US-allied Sunni militiamen that killed three people, militiamen have once again been detained, widening concerns that sectarian violence may once more engulf Baghdad. There are 50,000 Sahwa fighters in Baghdad alone.
While the Sahwa leader, who had been detained with 32 of his fighters, was eventually released by the Iraqi government, tensions grew in the wake of his detention as threats made by both sides increased. Thus far, only 11 of the 32 others have been released.
Just days after the aforementioned detention, Iraqi forces arrested two more Sahwa guards in the al-Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, which is controlled by their forces. In an article for Truthout last week, I voiced my concerns of these government attacks against Sahwa forces spreading. I am surprised at the rapidity at which this is occurring now, as this trend, if it continues, appears almost certain to spark a dramatic flare of sectarian violence in the capital city.
The Sahwa fighters, who once numbered 100,000 across Iraq according to the US military, were backed and paid by US forces until the Shiite-led Iraqi government took over the program last October, a process that was completed this week. Payment to Sahwa leaders by the US military, however, has shifted from overt payments to payment in the form of "construction contracts" to key leaders.
That the treatment of the Sahwa forces by the Iraqi government is largely seen as a barometer for the process of reconciliation does not bode well for these recent events. Most of the Sahwa fighters are former resistance fighters, who feared they would be arrested for their previous attacks against the Iraqi government. For example, Mashhadani was arrested, according to Iraqi government officials, for running a bomb-making factory among other reasons.
Further complicating matters, in separate incidents last week, US forces opened fire on a group of fighters they said could belong to a Sahwa unit, killing one, after allegedly spotting them planting a bomb. In addition, last Friday, Iraqi police arrested Hussam Alwan, a Sahwa leader in the town of Muqtadiya, 50 miles northeast of Baghdad.
On Sunday, April 5, two houses were blown up in the Abu Ghraib district of west Baghdad, one of which belonged to a leader of the local Sahwa group. A man was killed and two women wounded, municipal officials said. Assuming this trend continues, the leadership of the Sahwa groups under attack and the fighters under their control are left with two choices: sit by and wait to be arrested or assassinated, or begin to fight back. Thus far, we are seeing the latter, and there is little reason to suspect this wonít increase if the government continues with its policy.
As the threat of a resurgence of sectarian violence grows, black funeral banners hang across Baghdad, ominous reminders that there is no normal life in the war-ravaged country. The Los Angeles Times reports , "At a time when the Iraqi government and US military speak of lower death tolls, black banners drape the mosque walls and traffic circles of Baghdad, telling a different story of a world beyond statistics, where killings still ripple through society. These disposable funeral banners, randomly read by drivers who pass on the word about the drive-by shootings, bombings and assassinations they document, remind ordinary Iraqis that nothing is as it seems, that the embers of the recent civil war still burn."
Meanwhile, violence continues across the country. A brief tally of the last several days gives an idea of the situation in Iraq:
Sunday, April 5: nine Iraqis killed, 30 wounded
Saturday, April 4: one US marine, two Iraqis killed; eight Iraqis wounded
Friday, April 3: one US soldier, five Iraqis killed; 17 Iraqis wounded
Thursday, April 2: nine Iraqis killed, 22 wounded
Wednesday, April 1: one US soldier, 15 Iraqis killed; 25 Iraqis wounded
At the height of the sectarian violence that ravaged Iraq between early 2006