Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) stated that 12 civilians were injured in a Coalition airstrike on the village of Tell Yara in Bashiqa, north of Mosul.
Ghiyath Alsurja, a media official with the KDP, told reporters that the Coalition had targeted Daesh facilities in the village 17 km north of Mosul, killing a number of enemy fighters. But he added that “12 people from the village were also injured.”
In its July 2017 civilian casualty report, the Coalition denied responsibility for the event on the grounds of insufficient evidence of civilian harm: “Jan. 16, 2016, near Bashiqa, Iraq, via Airwars report: After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.”
Given the named source for this allegation, Airwars continues to assess as likely.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (2) [ collapse]
Attached to this civilian harm incident is a provisional reconciliation of the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, based on matching date and locational information.
The declassified documents were obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, and are included alongside the corresponding press release published by the Pentagon. Airwars is currently analysing the contents of each file, and will update our own assessments accordingly.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
The Coalition reports that for January 16th-17th 2016 “Near Mosul, 10 strikes struck seven separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL-used culvert and destroyed three ISIL vehicles, 34 ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL weapons caches, three ISIL assembly areas, three ISIL bunkers, and wounded two ISIL fighters.”