Geolocation
Airwars assessment
The attempted US targeted killing of the Australian Neil Prakash, ‘an ISIL external operations facilitator’ instead “struck three civilians on the road and one civilian located on an adjacent compound,” CENTCOM admitted three months later.
Among the four civilians who were killed in the airstrike that day, one man was named by local sources, Ziad Khalaf Awad, who was a university teacher.
Although Neil Prakash was widely reported killed in the attack at the time, the New York Times confirmed in November 2016 that he was still alive: “An Australian, Neil Prakash, was targeted in a strike around the same time. A senior American official said that Mr Prakash was wounded but survived. In the last few weeks, however, a Middle Eastern government arrested Mr Prakash, another senior American military official said.” ABC News Australia reported that Prakash “was arrested by Turkish officials when he tried to cross the Syrian border into Turkey using false documents and a fake name.”
According to the New York Times, “among the injured was Hassan Aleiwi Muhammad Sultan, now 16, who was playing soccer nearby and still has shrapnel in his spinal cord. His family can barely afford his wheelchair.”
In July 2019, the Coalition provided Airwars with the location of this incident, accurate to within a 100 metre box.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (11) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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Dr Ziad Khalaf, reported killed in an alleged Coalition strike on Mosul April 30th 2016 (via Mosul News Agency)
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
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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On April 29, 2016, in Mosul, Iraq, during a strike targeting Neil Prakash, an ISIL external operations facilitator, it is assessed that four civilians were killed when the weapon struck three civilians on the road and one civilian located on an adjacent compound.
Original strike reports
The Coalition reports for April 29th-30th 2016 that “Near Mosul, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL bed down locations, two ISIL fighting positions, and an ISIL weapons cache.”