Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In an incident not previously tracked by Airwars, on September 1st 2017 the Coalition said it had concluded an assessment on claims of civilian harm “near Mosul, Iraq” via an NGO report. According to the Coalition report, “March 18, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq, via NGO 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.”
The Coalition shared the location of this assessed strike with Airwars. The location was stated as the Risala district in West Mosul.
Puk Media quoted a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Seven displaced persons were interviewed, who said that their house in in al Risala district “was completely destroyed by the aerial bombardments”.
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
For March 17th-18th the Coalition reported: “Near Mosul, four strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units; destroyed 56 ISIS vehicles, 25 fighting positions, five rocket-propelled grenade systems, two medium machine guns, two mortar systems, and an ISIS VBIED; and suppressed 20 ISIS mortar teams and four ISIS tactical units.”