(Previous Incident Code: I333)

Local sources and relatives of victims said that more than 20 civilians from three families were killed, including children and women, after Coalition airstrikes targeted their houses in front of Saddam mosque at the entrance of Farms district, north of Mosul.

Mosul Ateka reported that “18 people were killed in the Farms district after three houses were bombed in that area.” In comments below the post it was said that Al Haj Riad and his wife and his son Mahfouz House Haj Hamou were among the victims, which was reportedly carried out by the Coalition. In a later post by Mosul Ateka, including photos, Haj Riad Adnan and his wife and his son Imran Riad Adnan were also reported as killed in the strikes.

Nineveh Media Center said that “a medical source confirms the deaths of more than two dozen people as a result of aerial bombardment [which] targeted the wrong homes of unarmed civilians in the agricultural district of the northern city of Mosul.” Ajel Al Mosul (Facebook) also reported the incident, and spoke of 20 civilians killed in the raids in the farms neighbourhood. Sunni Muslim (Facebook) posted a video showing “The effects of the international coalition aircraft bombed the Farms district in the left side of the city of Mosul.”

In a later investigation into the event, AFP interviewed eyewitness Abdulrahman Riyadh who said tyhe strike came at dawn on January 6th: ““Everything collapsed around me. I pushed the debris around me, I got up and I asked my brother if he was still alive. He was wounded in the leg. I told him to come into my bed and I started looking for my little brother, my father and my mother. I screamed but nobody answered.”

On March 4th the Coalition announced that it was assessing the event: “Currently, 19 reports of civilian casualties are still being assessed… Jan. 6, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq, via social media report.” An official confirmed to Airwars that this was a reference to the al Zirai allegation.

On April 30th the Coalition flagged the event as ‘not credible’ noting: “Jan. 6, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq, via social media report: After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in this geographic area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.”

Based on available evidence Airwars continues to assess this event as fair.

A UN report on the protection of civilians in context of Nineveh operations and the retaking of Mosul stated: ‘In the morning of 6 January, airstrikes targeting an ISIL gathering in the Ziraie neighbourhood of central Mosul killed 17 civilians, including seven women and four children, and wounded 11 others, including four women and two children.’