Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Twenty five or more civilians were reported killed following a battle in the Hermat area of West Mosul. It was unclear whether Iraqi forces and/or the Coalition were responsible.
Amnesty International provided the following field report to Airwars citing an eyewitness: “On 2 May, in the early morning, there was a big attack on my street. The attack hit a house that was seven houses away from us. As a car bomb moved down the street, the tank targeted the car bomb, and then the ‘elephant bomb’ targeted the house. I don’t know how many people were killed, but we could hear the screams from the house. They were crying out “they killed our family”, “they killed my mother.”
Later, around 9 or 10am, there was an airstrike on our street. Seven houses were destroyed as a result. I didn’t see the attack, but as we were fleeing the next day, we saw all of the houses destroyed. That attack shock the ground. It felt like there was an earthquake. We could feel the whole earth move. I think it was a “bareena” missile – these go very deep – 3 meters into the ground. At least 23 people were killed from this attack, and one fighter. Most of the 23 were women and children. There were only two men among those killed. I didn’t see the bodies myself, but these are our neighbours, so we know who was killed. Only 13 survived who were living in those houses.”
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
-
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.”