Incident Code

CI217

Location

الموصل‎, Mosul, Nineveh, Iraq

Geolocation

36.36464, 43.13968
Accuracy: Within 100m (via Coalition)

Airwars Assessment

Last Updated: December 15, 2024

(Previous Incident Code: I184a)

In what may be the same incident as CI216 or CI218 – or a separate targeted killing operation – the US revealed three weeks after the event that a strike on an ‘ISIL finance emir’ had also killed a woman civilian. Three months later CENTCOM revealed two additional civilian deaths in the event.

General Peter E. Gersten, deputy commander for operations and intelligence for the Coalition, also revealed that US aircraft had detonated a Hellfire missile above the house as a ‘warning’ to civilians inside to leave.

“He was the major distributor of funds to Daesh fighters,” CNN reported Gersten as saying. “We watched him come and go from his house, we watched his supplies, we watched the security that was involved in it. And we also watched occasionally a female and her children in and out of the quarters…We went as far as actually to put a Hellfire on top of the building and air-burst it so it wouldn’t destroy the building, simply knock on the roof to ensure that she and the children were out of the building… And then we proceeded with our operations.”

But the tactic failed according to CNN citing Gersten: “We watched her and observed her leaving the building. And she cleared the building, and we began to process the strike.” But then, he said, she ran back in the building. It was “very difficult for us to watch, and it was within the final seconds of the actual impact,” Gersten recalled.”

In a statement issued July 28th 2016, CENTCOM noted: “On April 5, 2016, in Mosul, Iraq, during a strike on an ISIL financial storage facility, it is assessed that three civilians were killed.”

Key Information

Country
Military Actor
Civilian Harm Reported
Yes
Civilian Harm Status
Confirmed
A specific belligerent has accepted responsibility for civilian harm.
Civilians reported killed
3
0–2 Children, 1 Woman

Geolocation Notes

Prior to the Coalition releasing the MGRS for this incident, Airwars had geolocated it to the nearest city at 36.34585235, 43.09857692

Military Statements

U.S.-led Coalition Assessment
Known belligerent
U.S.-led Coalition
U.S.-led Coalition position on incident
Credible / Substantiated
Given reason for civilian harm
No reason given
Civilian deaths conceded
3
Civilian injuries conceded
None
Stated location
near Mosul, Iraq
Location accuracy
100 m
MGRS coordinate
38SLF331260
U.S.-led Coalition Strike Report
The Coalition reports that for April 5th-6th 2016: “Near Mosul, seven strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units, an ISIL financial storage center, and an ISIL headquarters and destroyed two ISIL supply caches, two ISIL vehicles, an ISIL command and control node, and three ISIL assembly areas.“
U.S.-led Coalition Civilian Casualty Statement
2016-07-28
Original Source
during a strike on an ISIL financial storage facility, it is assessed that three civilians were killed.