Pentagon: U.S. strike set off ISIS bombs inMosul tragedy
WASHINGTON — A two-month investigation into a U.S. military airstrike in Iraq that caused some of theworst civilian casualties in decades found that the attack inadvertently set off explosives that gutted a sprawling apartment complex and killed at least 105 civilians — far fewer than survivors and other witnesses have claimed.
Residents have insisted that several hundred people died. Iraqi civil defense forces initially put the figure at 278 but scaled that back to 142 on Thursday, after the U.S. report was released.
The deadly March 17 incident in Jadidah, a densely populated neighborhood in the war-torn Iraqi city of Mosul, garnered worldwide attention after photos of smoldering rubble mixed with lifeless bodies rippled across social media.
The Pentagon said military investigators, led by Air Force Brig. Gen. Matthew Isler, twice visited the site of the airstrike, spoke to witnesses and pored through more than 700 videos taken from coalition warplanes over a 10-day period before, during and after the airstrike.
According to the Pentagon account released Thursday, a U.S. military warplane dropped a 500pound GPS-guided bomb on two Islamic State fighters firing on Iraqi forces from the roof of a building in Jadidah. The investigation said the GBU-38 bomb should have killed the pair and maintained the structural integrity of the twostory building, which was constructed of reinforced concrete and had 30-inch walls at points.
Instead, a massive explosion ripped through the neighborhood, reducing the apartment block to flaming wreckage, twisted rebar and a tomb for innocent civilians.
The investigation said 101 bodies were found in a main building, and four others found in a nearby building.
The Pentagon released an “executive summary” of the investigation, called an AR 15-6. The full report is classified.
Isler told reporters at the Pentagon via teleconference from Randolph Air ForceBase inTexas that the massive blast was caused by explosives planted by Islamic State.
“No one saw ISIS move explosives into that area,” he said, using an acronym for the terrorist group. “However, thereweremultiple opportunities for that to happen, so we did not rule that out.”
Investigators came to the conclusion that the militants planted the explosives, he said, because the chemical residue left behind was different from that found within the GBU-38. They said the size of the blast suggested there was four times as much explosive material as contained in the U.S. bomb. A GBU-38 has a 192-pound warhead.
“The secondary explosion caused a rapid failure of the structure,” Isler said.
The civilianswere found in the basement, sheltering from the battle raging outside, Isler said, while the explosives were put on the second floor. Isler said Islamic State intentionally lured the airstrike knowing civilians were in the building and knowing the planted explosives likely would bring the structure down.
The airstrike was delivered by a U.S. aircraft after Iraqi forces, taking fire fromthetwo snipers, called it in. Iraqi counterterrorism service members were watching the building for two days and sawno sign of civilians inside, Isler said.
U.S. reconnaissance aircraftwere overheadwatching the facility but also did not see the civilians, Isler said. However, the spy planes could not watch the building in the two days preceding the strike because of bad weather, he added.
“The coalition takes responsibility for the strike,” Isler said.
The coalition does not usually compensate civilians for accidental strikes, with the exception of occasional sympathy payments.
The U.S. military says 352 civilians have been killed in coalition airstrikes since the air war against ISIS was launched in August 2014 — still far fewer than independent monitor Airwars’ estimate of 3,294.