Pentagon: U.S. coalition behind airstrike
Investigation looks at civilian deaths in Mosul, officials say
MOSUL, Iraq — An initial investigation of a recent airstrike believed to have killed more than 200 civilians in Mosul found it was conducted by the U.S.-led coalition at the request of Iraqi security forces, the Pentagon said Saturday.
Witnesses said the airstrike killed hundreds of residents in west Mosul’s Jidideh neighborhood March 17.
At least 50 bodies could be seen in the area Friday, including pregnant women, children and newborns.
On Saturday, a day after Pentagon officials announced they were investigating the incident, they released a statement saying the coalition had targeted Islamic State fighters and equipment in the area March 17, “at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties.”
The coalition said it takes allegations of civilian casualties seriously and that a formal Civilian Casualty Credibility Assessment has been opened into the airstrike and the allegation of civilian casualties.
“The Coalition respects human life, which is why we are assisting our Iraqi partner forces in their effort to liberate their lands from ISIS brutality,” the statement said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met in recent days with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Ababi and foreign ministers from the coalition partners at the State Department to explore new ideas to expand the fight against ISIS in Mosul.
The airstrike, if confirmed, would mark the deadliest civilian casualty incident since the U.S. military began its involvement in mid-2014.
The credibility assessment, in which the military gathers and analyzes an array of information that is both classified and public, is expected to take up to three weeks.
The focus of the inquiry will be whether the coalition airstrike hit the building; whether an accumulation of airstrikes in the area degraded the structural integrity of the building before it fell; or whether the Islamic State detonated an explosion after the airstrike to bring the building down.
Another likely possibility is that an airstrike hit or triggered an Islamic State suicide car bomb. Militants have deployed the mobile bombs, in which a driver will blow himself up in the face of advancing Iraqi forces.
Witnesses said militants parked a truck packed with explosives on their block days before the airstrike, then forced families inside their homes as they lingered outside, sniping from roofs.
Some saw militants shooting at aircraft before the strike, then saw the truck explode during the attack.
U.N. officials said they were “profoundly concerned” by reports of the alleged airstrike.
“We’re incredibly worried about what is happening in western Mosul. It’s much, much, much worse than the east for civilians,” Lise Grande, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said Saturday.
The military is investigating more than a dozen other reports of civilian casualty claims in Mosul.
The Pentagon has acknowledged 220 civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since the U.S. campaign against ISIS began in 2014. Independent monitoring groups put the casualty figures much higher, at about 2,700 civilians killed in airstrikes in both countries during that time.
“Our goal has always been for zero civilian casualties,” the Pentagon said Saturday. “But the coalition will not abandon our commitment to our Iraqi partners because of ISIS’ inhuman tactics terrorizing civilians, using human shields, and fighting from protected sites such as schools, hospitals, religious sites and civilian neighborhoods.”
Iraqi Vice President Osama Nujaifi, a Mosul native, issued a statement calling the strike a “humanitarian catastrophe” that killed hundreds. He blamed the U.S.-led coalition and Federal Police and called for an emergency session of Parliament to address the incident.