restraint.
More brutal societies would carpet bomb an entire city that allowed enemies shelter within its streets. We do not do such. We fought with our hands tied by ethics, thank goodness.
That was an Iraqi and Kurdish forces offensive against ISIS in Mosul, which they heavily occupied. We did assist that offensive with missile strikes. The satellite photos your article shows are located in a specific region of the city. Did they bomb the rest of the city? War is terrible, but I am not sure your example is a good one.
This style of bombing continues to this day. There are numerous citites in the middle east that have been reduced to rubble in the 21st century by aerial area bombing.
The latest on-the-ground footage I saw of Kabul, Afghanistan suggests we're still leveling entire cities. There wasn't a single building intact except for the one being reported on that had just been constructed, which stood out among the vast fields of rubble.