Incident Code
Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: I023a)
An internal post-strike review for CENTCOM of full-motion video revealed a “possible child entering a targeted bunker and then disappearing out of the field of view (FOV) approximately 19 minutes before Strike.”
The dynamic strike, conducted by a French Mirage 2000 using a Bu-49 bomb, killed an estimated five enemy fighters.
Claims that a child had died were deemed “not credible” by military intelligence officers, who decided “that individuals struck were fighters.“
Airwars researchers could find no reference to a child fatality for this date, although reports did note an intensification of Coalition strikes on the city.
In July 2017 the Coalition said that based on available evidence, it had classed the event as non credible. It has also referenced Airwars not having found any other reporting of civilian casualties other than the internal CENTCOM document: “Feb. 3, 2015, near Mosul, Iraq, via Airwars 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.”
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Kisik Junction (الموصل), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.34585235, 43.09857692. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.