Airwars assessment
In an incident not previously tracked by Airwars, on November 30th 2017 the Coalition said it had concluded an assessment on claims of civilian harm “near Mosul, Iraq” by Human Rights Watch. According to the Coalition report, “April 10, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq, via Human Rights Watch organization: After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.”
The Coalition shared the location of this assessed strike with Airwars. The location was stated as the Sekak neighbourhood in Mosul. This matches the location of a separate strike reported by Airwars (I489), also assessed as non-credible in the April 2017 civilian casualties report.
The strike was assessed as non credible based on the claim that “no Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographic area of the reported civilian casualties.” However, the Coalition reported multiple strikes in Mosul that day.
No additional details are presently known.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (1) [ 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 and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
For April 9th-10th the Coalition publicly stated: “Near Mosul, five strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units; destroyed five fighting positions, five mortar systems, three medium machine guns, and a vehicle; damaged 22 supply routes; and suppressed four mortar teams.”