The US military says more than 100 civilians were killed in a blast in Mosul in March.

A Pentagon investigation has found that the civilians were killed when a US airstrike inadvertently triggered a second explosion, causing a building to collapse.

The blast took place on March 17 in the city in the north of Iraq, the report said. </s> Washington: A U.S. military investigation on Thursday acknowledged that more than 100 civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike on a building in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March during operations against Islamic State militants.

The probe concluded that the U.S. strike in the Al-Jadida district inadvertently triggered explosives placed in the building by Islamic State fighters, causing it to collapse.

Local officials and eyewitnesses have said as many as 240 people may have died in the strike.

It is believed to be one of the single largest incidents of civilian casualties since the U.S.-led coalition started operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler, who oversaw the investigation, told reporters that the March 17 strike was aimed at two Islamic State snipers.

However, the 500-pound bomb triggered explosives inside the concrete building, collapsing it onto civilians.

Isler said the United States and nearby Iraqi forces did not know there were civilians in the building or that it had been rigged with explosives.

He added that 101 civilians inside the building were killed, four civilians were killed in nearby, and 36 civilians were still not accounted for.

Prior to this investigation, the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State said that at least 352 civilians have been killed in strikes it carried out in Iraq and Syria since 2014. That estimate is far lower than those provided by outside groups. </s> WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Thursday that a military investigation had found that more than 100 civilians were killed after a U.S. air strike on a building in Mosul, Iraq in March.

The investigation concluded that the U.S. strike in the Al-Jadida district inadvertently triggered explosives placed in the building by Islamic State fighters, causing the building to collapse.

It was one of the deadliest single incidents for civilians in recent memory in any major conflict involving the U.S. military, which prides itself on efforts to limit civilian fallout. (Reporting by Idrees Ali) </s> A two-month investigation into one of the worst civilian casualty events in decades found that a U.S. military airstrike in Iraq inadvertently set off explosives that ripped through a sprawling apartment block and killed at least 105 civilians.

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 Brigadier 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 500-pound 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 two-story 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 victims, including women and children.

The investigation said 101 bodies were found in a main building and four others were killed in a nearby building. </s> US officials said on Thursday that a military investigation had found that more than 100 civilians were killed after a US air strike on a building in Mosul, Iraq, in March.

The investigation concluded that the US strike in the Al-Jadida district inadvertently triggered explosives placed in the building by Islamic State fighters, causing the building to collapse.

It was one of the deadliest single incidents for civilians in recent memory in any major conflict involving the US military, which prides itself on efforts to limit civilian fallout.

He said 101 civilians in the building were killed, and another four died in a nearby building. He added that 36 civilians remain unaccounted for. The deaths represent about a quarter of all civilian deaths since the US air campaign began. </s> On March 17, US warplanes attacked a handful of buildings in the city of Mosul, leveling the buildings and burying a massive number of civilians within. US officials have since admitted that they were “probably” responsible for the deaths of civilians in the attacks.

Estimates varied, and the Iraqi government has now offered some guidance on the matter, confirming they’ve recovered 278 civilian bodies from the rubble so far, and that there are still more to be found. This was at the higher end of estimates previously offered by third parties.

This confirmation of the toll, which is likely to keep rising as bodies are found, already makes this the single deadliest US strike of the entire ISIS war. It is also in the ballpark of the deadliest airstrikes in the history of modern warfare.

With Pentagon officials conceding at least “probable” blame, and Iraq providing specific death tolls, it remains to be seen how the Pentagon will handle this incident in next month’s report on civilian tolls. The Pentagon’s reports usually dramatically under count the number of civilians claimed, but the sheer size of this incident will make it difficult to bury.
• US Launched Over 20 Airstrikes Against Yemen This Past Weekend - April 5th, 2017
• US Navy Grounds T-45 Training Jets Because Instructors Won't Fly in Them - April 5th, 2017 </s> A U.S. military investigation on Thursday acknowledged that more than 100 civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike on a building in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March during operations against Islamic State militants.

The probe concluded that the U.S. strike in the Al-Jadida district inadvertently triggered explosives placed in the building by Islamic State fighters, causing it to collapse.

Local officials and eyewitnesses have said as many as 240 people may have died in the strike.

It is believed to be one of the single largest incidents of civilian casualties since the U.S.-led coalition started operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler, who oversaw the investigation, told reporters that 101 civilians inside the building were killed, four civilians were killed in the neighboring building, and 36 civilians were still not accounted for.

Prior to the March 17 strike, Iraqi forces were about 100 meters away and could see two snipers on the second floor of the building. However, Isler said, there were blind zones and the forces could not see parts of the building.

The coalition had been monitoring the area since the operation for western Mosul began weeks before. However, for two days before the strike took place, the coalition did not have overhead surveillance of the area because of the weather, Isler said.

When the 500-pound bomb was dropped on the building targeting the snipers, it triggered explosives inside the concrete structure, collapsing it onto civilians.

The United States and nearby Iraqi forces did not know there were civilians in the building or that it had been rigged with explosives, the probe found.

“This investigation determined that ISIS deliberately staged explosives and snipers to harm civilians,” Isler said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

He added that the coalition took responsibility for the air strike.

The investigation found that the chemical signature found in the residues was not associated with the bomb used by the United States, but rather with explosives usually used by Islamic State militants.

It said that analysis concluded that the amount of explosives in the U.S. bomb, about 200 pounds, was not enough to bring down the building. The investigation added that the bomb was dropped at the front of the building while structural engineers found that the damage and crater was at the back of the building.

Seven months since the operation to retake Mosul began, Iraqi forces have removed Islamic State from all but a pocket of territory in the western half of Mosul, including the Old City, where the militants are expected to make their last stand.

The investigation recommended the coalition create a team dedicated to assessing civilian casualties that would more quickly investigate reports of civilian deaths.

The coalition has adapted its intelligence gathering tactics to better identify where civilians are located, Isler said.

Prior to this investigation, the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State said that at least 352 civilians had been killed in strikes it carried out in Iraq and Syria since 2014. That estimate is far lower than those provided by outside groups. </s> On the outskirts of the village of Al Hud, members of the Iraqi Army visit the area where locals say Islamic State executed four or five Peshmerga in recent months. Another grave containing many more people was in the area but too dangerous to visit due to mines.

WASHINGTON — As many as 64 civilians have been killed in the last 12 months in airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday.

The civilian deaths and eight noncombatant injuries occurred in 24 strikes that were each independently investigated and deemed lawful, said Air Force Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for Central Command. Thirteen of the strikes occurred in Iraq and 11 in Syria.

Thomas said avoiding civilian casualties is a “key tenant” of the Operation Inherent Resolve campaign, and he emphasized the coalition believes it’s possible that less than 64 noncombatants were killed in the strikes.

“We have teams who work full time to prevent unintended civilian casualties,” he said. “… Sometimes civilians bear the brunt of military action, but we do all we can to minimize those occurrences even at the cost of sometimes missing the chance to strike valid targets in real time.”

Thomas said the military takes all reports of civilian casualties seriously. He said coalition investigations used internal records alongside reports from news outlets, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government department and agencies.

Some outside organizations, including Amnesty International, have accused the U.S. military of inadequate investigations into reports of civilian deaths. In October, Amnesty International accused Operation Inherent Resolve airstrikes in Syria alone of killing more than 300 civilian between September 2014 and June 2016.

Pentagon and Central Command officials have disputed those numbers and touted the military’s commitment to transparency when it is accused of killing civilians.

Here are the airstrikes that Central Command said likely killed civilians since November 2015:
• Nov. 20, 2015, near Dayr-az-Zawr in Syria, against a tactical unit. Five civilians killed and three injured.
• March 5, near Mosul in Iraq, against a weapons production facility. Ten civilians killed.
• March 24, near Qayara in Iraq, against an unspecified militant target. One civilian killed.
• April 1, near Raqqa in Syria, against a tactical unit. Three civilians killed.
• April 9, near Mosul, against a tactical unit. One civilian killed.
• April 30, near Mosul, against Islamic State group military leadership. Five civilians killed.
• May 25, near Mosul, against a tactical unit. One civilian killed.
• May 26, near Mosul, against enemy fighters. One civilian killed.
• May 29, near Mosul, against a weapons system. Six civilians killed.
• June 15, near Kisik in Iraq, against a weapons storage facility. Six civilians killed.
• June 15, near Mosul, against unspecified targets. Two civilians injured.
• June 21, near Raqqa, against a headquarters building. Three civilians killed.
• June 23, near Raqqa, against a militant-held building. Four civilians killed.
• June 26, near Mosul, against an unspecified enemy target. One individual injured.
• June 26, near Mosul, against an unspecified enemy target. One individual injured.
• July 3, near Manbij in Syria, against a fighting position. Four civilians killed.
• July 10, near Manbij, against an unspecified enemy target. Two civilians killed.
• July 14, near Qayara, during a strike on an enemy-held building. One civilian killed.
• July 31, near Manbij, against enemy fighters. One civilian injured.
• Aug. 17, near Raqqa, against an enemy target. Two civilians killed.
• Aug. 20, near Manbij, against an artillery firing position. One civilian killed.
• Aug. 31, near Ramadi in Iraq, against an unspecified enemy target. Two civilians killed.
• Sept. 7, near Dayr-az-Zawr, against an oil collection point. One civilian killed.
• Sept. 10, near Raqqa, against an unspecified enemy target. Five civilians killed. </s> Columbia: A Pentagon investigation has concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-IS strike in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March, officials said Thursday, but they blamed the toll on a secondary explosion of jihadist munitions.

A US aircraft delivered a single precision-guided bomb into a building in west Mosul on March 17, with the aim of killing a pair of snipers on the second story of the structure in the al-Jadida neighborhood, which at the time was under Islamic State control.

But the bomb also caused a large cache of IS explosives to detonate, leading to the catastrophic collapse of the building that had civilians sheltering downstairs, officials said.

"The secondary explosion triggered a rapid failure of the structure which killed the two ISIS snipers, 101 civilians sheltered in the bottom floors of the structure and four civilians in the neighboring structure to the west," said US Air Force Brigadier General Matt Isler, the lead investigator.

Isler said another 36 civilians who are "believed to be connected" to the building remained unaccounted for, but they had likely fled the area shortly before the strike. He said he was "very confident" in the final toll.

It was the single deadliest incident for civilians stemming from a coalition strike since anti-IS operations in Iraq and Syria began nearly three years ago. 

 The United States had previously only acknowledged that it "probably" had a role in the civilian deaths.

The investigation comes amid broader claims that US forces under President Donald Trump are killing more civilians as the military fulfills a plan to "annihilate" the Islamic State group.

The Pentagon denies this and says its rules of engagement remain unchanged and insists its precision-targeting abilities are the best in the world.

Officials say the US takes every precaution to avoid hitting civilians, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone.

"Our condolences go out to all those that were affected," said Major General Joe Martin.

"The coalition takes every feasible measure to protect civilians from harm. The best way to protect civilians is to defeat ISIS."

No condolence payments have been made, Isler said, though such a move has not been ruled out.

According to Isler, Iraqi counterterrorism service (CTS) troops had been moving into the al-Jadida neighborhood in west Mosul when they came under fire from the IS snipers.

Mosul was a former IS bastion but the jihadists now only control about 10 percent of the city.

Bad weather had kept surveillance drones from gathering video of the area for two days, and CTS and coalition forces -- not knowing civilians were in the building -- ultimately called in a strike, Isler said.

The precision-guided bomb selected -- a GBU-38 carrying 192 pounds of explosives -- was rigged to cause only localized damage to the building, but it ignited a large amount of ordnance which, unbeknownst to the coalition, IS fighters had previously placed inside.

"Post-blast analysis detected residues common to explosives used by ISIS, but not consistent with the explosive content of a GBU-38 munition," Central Command said in a statement.

"Engineering and weapons analysis indicates that the GBU-38 should have resulted in no more than 16-20 percent damage to the structure, localized to the front of the second floor."

Officials said IS may have deliberately rigged the building to explode and then used the snipers to intentionally provoke an air strike.

As of the most recent Centcom official tally, at least 352 civilians had been killed since the beginning of the bombing campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria nearly three years ago.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria, claims a minimum of 3,350 people have died in coalition strikes.
The United States military reports that their investigation found 105 civilians were killed and 36 people are still missing from the bombing of a Mosul building on March 17.