Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Local sources said that nine people from the same family died in an alleged Coalition airstrike on their house in Al-Farouk Street, in Farouk neighbourhood in West Mosul, at midnight.
Local Facebook page Sawlf Ateka reported that Tarek al-Sanjari, his five sons and two daughters died. Reportedly, a large explosion blew off the roof of the house where they were seeking protection.
A.M.S. and Urgent Mosul News listed the victims.
The New York Times interviewed a witness in Mosul who took the reported the remains of the Sanjari family home. According to witnesses, “Tariq Khalil Ibrahim Sanjari and his family were sleeping in April 2017. The Sanjari family had rented this house because their own had been damaged during the war. On the night of the strike, 27 people were asleep in five bedrooms. A little after 12:30 a.m., Sanjari’s son Emad Tariq Khalil Ibrahim woke up struggling to breathe and realized he was partly buried under concrete. After removing the blocks on top of him, he found his wife and two sons. He heard a voice and began searching for other survivors. The lower half of his brother Mahmoud Tariq Khalil was pinned under a block of concrete and steel bars. “I don’t know how to describe the moaning sounds he was making,” Emad told me softly. “I started by hugging my brother, and I kissed his forehead. I told him: ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to be OK. We’re going to save you.’ He didn’t say anything. He just moaned. Neighbors who came to help spent more than three hours working to free Mahmoud and the others, but the block was too heavy to lift. Emad could feel Mahmoud’s heartbeat slowing, his body temperature going down. He understood what was happening. Emad kissed his brother, said a prayer and left the room. Using a drill hammer, a metal-cutting tool and a car jack, the neighbors worked until 1 p.m., rescuing survivors and recovering bodies. Then they took the dead, seven in all, for burial. ISIS had previously briefly occupied the house next door to this home, he said, but abandoned it about 20 days to one month before the strike. That home did not appear to be hit.”
In its June casualty report the Coalition appeared to deny responsibility:
“27 – April 12, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq, via social media: After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographic area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.
29 – April 12, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq, via social media: The report contained insufficient information on the time, location and details to assess its credibility.”
Airwars has requested additional information on the location of these events.
A UN report on the protection of civilians in context of Nineveh operations and the retaking of Mosul stated: “In the evening of 12 April, an airstrike targeting ISIL in the Farouq neighbourhood, western Mosul, killed seven civilians, including two women and a child, and wounded 11 others, including four women and two children all from the same family. An unknown number of ISIL fighters were killed and wounded. The airstrike hit an ISIL compound and a civilian home adjacent to it.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (7)
Summary
Sources (6) [ 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. (1314)
Original strike reports
For April 10th-11th: “Near Mosul, six strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units; destroyed a fighting position, a supply cache, a rocket-propelled grenade system, an anti-air artillery system, one VBIED; damaged a fighting position; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit and a mortar team.”