Local sources claimed that a Coalition airstrike aimed at an ISIL vehicle instead hit nearby celebrations, killing 18 people including three medics. One was later named as dentist Dr. Samir Ibrahim while the UN noted that a father and child died in the reported event.

According to NINA, the deaths occurred when a missile accidentally struck celebrants at a festival in a square in north Mosul.

The monitoring site Jihadology later published a comment from a pro-ISIL website: “This man was one of the noble ones of Mosul who refused to leave the city, unlike others who abandoned their people in their time of need, fearing death, hunger or anything else…God willing on the Day of Judgment we will dispute with every doctor, engineer or even student who left Mosul in the time when solidarity and standing together in the path of turning the wheel of life were needed. But praise and thanks be to God we do not need those who abandoned us as they need us.”

In a January 2016 study, the United Nations Mission in Iraq noted that an alleged targeted killing of a Daesh official had also reportedly slain a father and daughter. According to UNAMI, “On the afternoon of 18 August, a man and his 12 year-old daughter were reportedly killed when an airstrike hit al-Minassa street, northern Mosul. The airstrike allegedly targeted a vehicle carrying three assistants to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and a judge of an ISIL self-appointed court, who were all killed.“

In its monthly civilian casualty assessment for October 2019 – published on December 5th of that year – the US-led Coalition assessed this event to be ‘non credible’, noting: “August 19, 2015, in Mosul, Iraq, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties. 2811/CI093 38SLF294240”.

The Coalition also provided coordinates showing the area it had assessed, accurate to within 100 metres.

The local time of the incident is unknown.