Geolocation
Airwars assessment
There were claims that up to 34 civilians died and 20 or more were injured following Coalition or Iraqi strikes on western Mosul.
The Iraqi Spring Media Center reported that airstrikes had targeted residential neighborhoods and killed 32 people, including women and children. Yaqein news also put the death toll at 32.
Shebab newsagency said that “33 people were killed, including women and children, when an airstrike targeted the west of Mosul amid intensified fighting between, on the one hand, Iraqi forces and the militia collaborating with them, and ISIL on the other hand, on the edge of the Tigris River in the city centre.”
Al Rawed posted an Al A’Amaq [ISIL propaganda] video showing “the damage left behind by US aircraft [as it] bombed residential areas on the left side of the city of Mosul”. The witness in the video said that two civilian houses and a wool factory had just been targeted by a US missile.
The Coalition announced on March 4th that it was conducting an assessment into an event on Mosul for January 26th.
A UN report on the protection of civilians in context of Nineveh operations and the retaking of Mosul stated: ‘In the evening of 26 January, 27 women and children were reportedly killed and 11 other civilians, including four children and one woman, were wounded in an airstrike targeting an ISIL compound in the Qasir al-Mitran neighbourhood of western Mosul.’
In July 2019 the Coalition announced that it had classed this allegation of civilian harm as non-credible. Their monthly civilian casualty report noted “After a review of all available records it was determined that, more likely than not, civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (15) [ 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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Jan. 26, 2017, in Western Mosul, Iraq, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it wasdetermined that, more likely than not, civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action.
Original strike reports
For January 25th-26th the Coalition publicly noted: “Near Mosul, three strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units; destroyed three mortar systems and two watercraft; and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.
For January 26th-27th it noted: “Near Mosul, five strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units; destroyed two ISIL headquarters, twoVBIED facilities, two barges, a fighting position, a tactical vehicle, a VBIED, and an anti-air artillery system; and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.”