As Iraqi troops closed in on Mosul over the past few months, the Islamic State seized civilian homes and trapped families inside while they staged attacks from the rooftops against U.S.-led coalition forces to lure American airstrikes.
The intent was political: to sew division among the local population and turn civilians against the American-backed Iraqi security forces.
David Eubank, an American aid worker in Mosul who founded the humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers, said he and his team witnessed ISIS militants using civilians as human shields in this manner on several occasions.
“You could hear…