Grewal writes: "Iraqi civilian losses used to be referred to as the inevitable 'collateral damage' of war; but from the scant Arabic media coverage and the silence of the Western press, it is painfully clear that the deaths of my loved ones have not even earned that ghastly euphemism. These civilian victims are simply lumped together with the death toll of Islamic State fighters."
A lunar eclipse above Baghdad last Monday. (photo: Hadi Mizban/AP)
When War Comes Close to Home
05 October 15
n the dead of night on Sept. 21, an airstrike from the skies above Mosul, Iraq, flattened the homes of my husband’s cousins, instantly killing four innocent civilians, and maiming others. The shock wave reverberated throughout our family scattered around the world, even here in quiet Connecticut.
The American-led air campaign did not hit a weapons storage facility belonging to the Islamic State, or ISIS, as one local report claimed. In a secluded part of Mosul that locals call “the Woods,” the empty government warehouse, which the Islamic State briefly occupied until January, remains untouched. Instead, the strike hit two homes nearby, killing my husband’s cousin, Mohannad Rezzo, a university professor; his 17-year-old son, Najeeb; and their beloved German shepherd, Sinbul.
Mohannad’s wife, Sana, survived the explosion, which flung her, burned, from her second-floor bedroom to the driveway below. Mohannad’s older brother, Bassim, also narrowly survived, but his wife, Miyada, and their 21-year-old daughter, Tuka, did not. Bassim’s pelvis and leg were shattered in the attack and require surgery, but it is his emotional pain that consumes him.
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