(Previous Incident Code: I173)

Up to 41 civilians were allegedly killed and 53 injured in an airstrike on Hawijah which was said to have struck the city’s main market and hospital.

The Daesh-linked Al A’amaq Agency initially reported the “Killing of four [civilians] and the wounding of 10 – most of them women and children – in an air strike targeting a market in the town.” Subsequent reports said the town’s main hospital was also targeted – and was “completely destroyed” according to one source. Mass casualties were claimed.

Some local sources claim the event was an act of ‘revenge’ following the earlier shooting down of an Iraqi military aircraft. A Daesh propaganda video titled ‘Iraqi Air Strikes on Hospital’ showed extensive destruction and casualties.

Only after the reported strike on the hospital did local media begin blaming the Coalition, insisting there were as many as 100 civilian dead and injured. One source – Dijlah TV – claimed the event was a jont Iraqi-Coalition raid which had mistakenly bombed the hospital.

In its July 2017 civilian casualty report, the Coalition denied involvement in the incident: “Mar. 18, 2016, near Hawijah, 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.”