Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Four civilians were reportedly killed in an alleged Coalition strike on al Sukkar, survivors told the US news magazine Buzzfeed. The alliance later accepted responsibility for the incident.
Buzzfeed met with survivors in mid-2017, with the outlet later sharing its incident notes with Airwars: Eyewitness told journalist Mike Giglio when he met him at his home he had lost his wife and three daughters.
Date and approximate time: December 14, 2016, at around 12:45 pm
Casualties: The wife and three daughters of Abu Ali, a Jordan native who has been living in Mosul since the 1980s.
Comments: Abu Ali left his home to get gas for the family generator when the strike hit. There was no fighting in the neighbourhood. It had a heavy ISIS presence, but there were no ISIS-held buildings in the immediate vicinity. Abu Ali and witnesses were not sure why the strike hit there; they speculated that might be an important ISIS member was driving by. The blast destroyed the home and killed everyone inside.
In its September 2017 monthly casualty report, the Coalition accepted responsibility: Dec. 14, 2016, near Mosul, Iraq, via media report: During a strike on an ISIS mortar position engaging partner forces, it was assessed that four civilians were unintentionally killed.
Officials confirmed to Airwars that this incident related to al Sukkur, with coordinates matching those provided by Buzzfeed.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention the neighbourhood of Sukkar (السكر) in the east of Mosul. The generic coordinates for this neighbourhood are: 36.3910949, 43.1676006. Exact coordinates of the strike were provided by the eyewitness: 36.386139, 43.168111.
Summary
Sources (2) [ collapse]
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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Dec. 14, 2016, near Mosul, Iraq, via media report: During a strike on an ISIS mortar position engaging partner forces, it was assessed that four civilians were unintentionally killed.
Original strike reports
For December 13th-14th, the Coalition reported “Near Mosul, three strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units; destroyed three fighting positions, a supply cache, a bunker, a tunnel, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and a mortar system; suppressed two mortar systems and a bunker, and damaged six supply routes.”