Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Yaqein reported that more than 40 civilians, including civilians, were killed in Iraqi government bombing. Citing a source, they said that there were 42 victims.
Al Hadath, citing the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, also cited government airstrikes in Tel Abtah, but said that they killed 42 terrorists, and destroyed three cars, one carrying members of ISIL. A Facebook account – Forth Theory – also cited more than 40 civilian deaths.
In an emailed response to a report submitted by Airwars on this and other incidents in December 2016, Coalition officials said the event was presently assessed as Not credible.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Tall Afar (تل عفر), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.375659, 42.451536. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (3) [ collapse]
Attached to this civilian harm incident is a provisional reconciliation of the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, based on matching date and locational information.
The declassified documents were obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, and are included alongside the corresponding press release published by the Pentagon. Airwars is currently analysing the contents of each file, and will update our own assessments accordingly.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area of the reported civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
For December 7th-8th, the Coalition reported no strikes near Tal Afar. For December 8th-9th, the Coalition reported no strikes near Tal Afar.