Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

CI692

Incident date

May 5, 2017

Location

Mosul, Al Hermat, Nineveh, Iraq

Geolocation

36.323338, 43.112861 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

Heavy shelling of Hermat in West Mosul led to the deaths of five families, according to locals living in the street who were interviewd by Amnesty International.

The following unpublished field report was shared with Airwars: “The bombing was random. There were airstrikes, helicopter strikes, artillery and rockets. There were 100s of strikes each day. (During the four or five days of shelling) we didn’t sleep at all.

I know of a house with five families inside that collapsed when hit by a bomb. It was just a one storey building. That happened on Friday (5 May). I don’t know what time of day it was as we were all hiding from the bombs ourselves at the time. We heard about it from our neighbour. Those five families had been hiding, just as we were doing.

They (the five families) were my neighbours. I knew them all. There were five brothers with their wives and children; their entire families. There were maybe 15 children in the house. The brother that I knew best was called Amr. The mother of the five brothers and grandmother of all the children was there as well. He name was Najood. They all died.

I wasn’t there at the time but I know the layout of the neighbour as my house is in the same neighbourhood and these people were my neighbours. There were four ISIS “barracks” near the house that was bombed. The barracks were just homes that ISIS had taken over from local people. The closest ISIS barracks was around 200 metres southwest of the house. There was another around 300 metres to the east.”

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Family members (2)

Amr
Child male killed
Najood
Child male killed

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    20 – 40
  • (15 children1 woman)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    US-led Coalition, Unknown

Sources (1) [ collapse]

CJTF–OIR Declassified Assessment and Press Release

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.

Declassified Assessment Press Release

US-led Coalition Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition
  • US-led Coalition position on incident
    Non credible / Unsubstantiated
    Insufficient information to assess that, more likely than not, a Coalition strike resulted in civilian casualties.
  • Reason for non-credible assessment
    Insufficient information on the time and location
  • Civilian deaths conceded
    None
  • Civilian injuries conceded
    None
  • Stated location
    farm near Mosul, Iraq
    Nearest population center

Civilian casualty statements

US-led Coalition
  • Jan 25, 2018
  • The report contains insufficient information of the time location and details to assess its credibility.

Original strike reports

US-led Coalition

For May 4th-5th, the Coalition reported: “Near Mosul, seven strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and a sniper team; destroyed nine mortar systems, nine fighting positions, two heavy machine guns, two tactical vehicles, two ISIS-held buildings, an anti-air artillery system, an artillery system, a command and control node, a VBIED, an ISIS bridge, a front-end loader, a weapons cache, a rocket system a VBIED factory; damaged 23 ISIS supply routes, three fighting positions; and suppressed six mortar teams.”

Unknown Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Unknown
  • Unknown position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    20 – 40
  • (15 children1 woman)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    US-led Coalition, Unknown

Sources (1) [ collapse]