(Previous Incident Code: I574)

A total of 35 people people from an extended family were killed, including 14 children, 9 women and two imams, when a home and street were bombed in the Al Shifa neighbourhood of Mosul. Sources said that the family were sheltering in the basement of the house.

Initial claims had placed the toll at 50, while the US-led Coalition estimated that 11 civilians were killed in the attack. Australia later explicitly accepted responsibility for part of the event – conceding between 6 and 18 deaths. Fifteen months later in May 2020, the United States accepted responsibility for a further 11 deaths in the event.

Relatives informed Airwars and others that in fact 35 named people died, from eight closely related families. There was only one survivor.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF’s) investigation was based on estimates of population density, not any on-the-ground research, and no contact was made with the affected family. However within hours of the official announcement of civilian harm, a surviving member of the family told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the number of civilians killed was 35, including his brother, sister and other family members.

“My brother has lost all of his family. The number of the family members who died are 35,” said Sheikh Ayman el Saffar. Sheikh Ayman said his brother’s property was also used as a religious community centre.

“The house was hit, they lost money and a religious community centre. He had this religious community centre at that time he used it as his private house. There were no activities at the community centre at the time.”

The New York Times interviewed Kareema Khalid Suleiman, the only survivor, who told the reporter that the family had gathered for safety in a house in the Al Shifaa neighborhood but when the home was hit, 33 people were killed. “As the house was consumed in flames, she managed to crawl out of a tiny hole, but no one else could make it. Behind her, a younger relative had managed to make it partly up the staircase. “My last words to her were: ‘Please, I’m going to help you. Come to me.’ And when they pulled me out, she was closing her eyes, and she died.”

According to the international alliance, there were strikes by two separate Coalition allies in the near vicinity on the day – each of which killed civilians. Australia accepted responsibility on January 31st 2019 for between 6 and 18 deaths in one of the strikes during the incident, while on the same day the Coalition’s civilian casualty assessment team declared a minimum of 11 deaths. This was later revealed to have been a separate US action. The Coalition provided Airwars with the location of this incident, accurate to within a 100 metre box.

Ateka Facebook page said on the day of the incident that Sheikh Mohammed Ghanim Al-Saffar – who was an Imam and preacher at the Sheikh Fathi Mosque in Mosul – died after aircraft targeted a sniper standing on the roof and bombed his house. The page said that his body was still under the rubble, together with his family.

Other outlets, including Yaqein and MNN, reported that 50 people in total were under the rubble of the house and presumed dead.

However Sawefa Ateka later reported that some were rescued: “The martyrdom of Madh Muhammad al-Saffar and the rescue of the family of Sheikh Ahmad al-Saffar and the other families who were exposed to their house in Al Shifa neighbourhood for aerial bombing Thank you to the rescue teams and the security forces there.”

Another entry listed the following victims: “The family of Mullah Youssef mourns the family of Al-Saffar by the martyr Sheikh Mohammed Ghanim Al-Saffar in front of the preacher of the Sheikh Fathi Mosque and his family and Sheikh Ahmed Ghanim Al-Saffar Imam and preacher of the Sheikh Muhsin Mosque and his family; and their brother Ammar Ghanem Al-Saffar and his family; and their cousin and their relative Raed Abdul Salam Al-Saffar and many people, after the fall of a missile from the plane on their house, which led to the fall of the house on them I am God and I return to him.”

Sheikh Mohammed Ghanim Al-Saffar was described by Qoraish as “one of ISIS’s most formidable enemies”.

@sonawa1 tweeted that civilians were “trapped under the rubble of the house of Abdul Ghani Halawaji”. It is likely that Abdul Ghani Halawaji is a misspell – with Halawaji possibly referring to the village the family originally came from – rather than the Mosul neighbourhoood from which they now take their name.

Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, spoke about the event following the ADF’s concession: “It is not clear what precisely went on. But I know our Defence force people will always be doing everything they can to ensure casualties are avoided.” The PM also described the event as “a terrible incident”, with the deaths of civilians “difficult and tragic.”

Airwars conducted an extensive interview with Engineer Amjad al Saffar, a family elder, in February 2019, in which the names of all victims were handed over.

In May 2020 in its annual civilian harm report to Congress, the Pentagon confirmed that US forces had been responsible for at least 11 deaths in this event. Asked to comment from Mosul on the Pentagon’s recent admission that its aircraft too had played a role in the mass casualty event, Engineer Amjad told Airwars: “As a well known and respected Mosul family, we feel both very sad and disappointed to learn of the US’s confession – three years after our catastrophe.- of their own role in an airstrike which killed so many. Along with Australia we hold the US fully responsible for our heavy loss of 35 family members, and demand both an apology and financial compensation.”