Geolocation
Airwars assessment
One child was killed and three others were injured in a suspected mortar strike by an unknown party on their family home.
Amnesty International provided the following field report to Airwars citing an eyewitness: ”On 1 May, I was sitting in the house, which is about 600-700 metres away from al-Haq mosque. There were 16 of us in one house. It was around 11:30am, and we were preparing lunch. The kids were in the front yard. I didn’t see it, but I heard the explosion. Two cars caught fire. Even our food was full of shrapnel. The sides of the house fell, and the outside wall to the courtyard. The mortar fell outside, in the courtyard. There was one IS fighter standing outside the house, but I don’t even think he was the target – it was a random strike.
The following were injured:
XXXX, 8 years old – shrapnel all over body
XXXX, 8 years old – shrapnel in both legs
XXXX, 4 years old – shrapnel in right leg
[I saw all of the injuries – the kids were in the tent.]
Only my son XXXX died. He was 8 years old. [photo of the death certificate shown to researchers]. He died from injuries on the way to the hospital. We were all holding him when he died.”
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 it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
For May 1st-2nd 2017 the Coalition reported: “Near Mosul; two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two mortar systems, a front-end loader, an artillery system, a fighting position, a VBIED factory, and a medium machine gun.” It additionally stated that “Near Mosul, May 1st, three strikes destroyed three VBIEDs and three ISIS fuel tankers, and suppressed three mortar teams.”