Airwars assessment
One woman was badly injured in an airstrike on her home – and was then caught up in further airstrikes as she receieved treatment in an ISIS hospital, it was reported.
Amnesty International provided the following field report to Airwars citing an eyewitness: “A hit from a ‘Khanzira’- she described this as being an ‘F52’ – went over their house and hit the neighbors next door. 14 people were killed. She did not go out to investigate because it is dangerous as most residents know it is never one hit at a time. “We know they want to destroy Daesh but this is not how it should be. To destroy a house and kill an entire family for one person. Is this the work of humans? If they want to liberate families, don’t use airstrikes. It’s these random airstrikes that kill people. In Mosul we say Jedida is the Kobani the 2nd. It’s all gone.”
Airstrikes from the Khanzira continued on the Sinaa area in front of their house. The front of the house was hit when she was in the courtyard sitting down. It had also hit the small kiosk-type sotarge in front of their house where her sons kept metal scraps and spare parts they sold (in the sinaa). The front walls of the courtyard fell in and XX turned to her children to help “I tried to get up but my left leg was dangling under me. I looked down and saw it covered in blood. The children started screaming, but they couldn’t take me anywhere.” The wound was held with towels at home until her son went out and got the attention of one of the IS fighters.
She was taken to the al-Limhouri hospital’s emergency wing by IS fighters in their car. Her husband and son accompanied her. She was in the hospital for 5 hours, being given first aid and prepared for operation to remove a piece of metal (infilaq) roughly 10 cm long from her lower left leg. Before entering the operation, airstrikes begun on the hospital and in the room she was in, the roof fell in. she was moved to the corridor with the rest of the patients. “They blared out on speaker and people rushing in and out that the hospital needs to be emptied. I couldn’t move so they kept me in the corridor with other patients.” Her husband was with her. “the strikes carried on for 3 hours and sometime there were mortars. Then they [IS] made us clear the hospital. My husband took me home in a KIA (open back small truck for transferring goods). Every meter we crossed was met with airstrikes and mortarts. I thought we’d never make it home but god was watching us.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (1) [ 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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The report contains insufficient information of the time, location and details to assess its credibility.
Original strike reports
For May 1st-2nd 2017 the Coalition reported: “Near Mosul; two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two mortar systems, a front-end loader, an artillery system, a fighting position, a VBIED factory, and a medium machine gun.” It additionally stated that “Near Mosul, May 1st, three strikes destroyed three VBIEDs and three ISIS fuel tankers, and suppressed three mortar teams.”