Geolocation
Airwars assessment
An internal CENTCOM review identified potential civilian casualties from a Coalition airstrike in “northern Iraq.” The only location for this date which matches is Sinjar. The incident was not previously tracked by Airwars.
According to a declassified CENTCOM document, “A review of FMV from a RECOIL feed revealed unknown individuals moving into a target area during a strike on PID ISIL fighters under SROE 001.”
A first stage review concluded “No CIVCAS determined“, citing local peshmerga reports that “all individuals engaged were ISIL forces”.
In an apparent contradiction, the Coalition reported the following in July 2017: “Sep. 14, 2014, near Sinjar, Iraq, via Airwars report: After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographic area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.” It is unclear why Airwars was quoted as the source of reporting for this incident.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Sinjar (سنجار), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.3206914, 41.8641115. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.