Defense minister apologizes for 2016 Mosul airstrike, offers families compensation

Defense Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz has apologized to the families affected by a Dutch airstrike on Mosul in 2016. She added that, considering the exceptional circumstances of this case, she has decided to offer them voluntary financial compensation, as stated in her letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament.

On March 22, 2016, an attack on a building at a university campus in northern Iraq killed seven civilians: two men, four women, and a child. The defense’s internal investigation found that they belonged to two separate families and were only on site temporarily to transfer their belongings to another residence.

The Netherlands was participating in an international coalition against IS at the time. The ministry initially believed the building served as an IS headquarters. “However, according to the information currently available to the defense ministry from this investigation, it was not a legitimate military target,” the ministry said.

The international coalition against IS, largely based on U.S. intelligence, had designated the building as an IS headquarters. The ministry was unaware that civilians had been killed; the information only came to light in 2023 following reporting by NRC, Nieuwsuur, and NOS.

Following the incident, the Public Prosecution Service conducted a fact-finding investigation and concluded last year that seven civilians were “most likely” killed. The attack was deemed not to have violated the rules of engagement in effect at the time.

In 2017, the NGO Airwars alerted the U.S. military that civilians had likely been killed in the strike. The Americans deemed the claim “not credible.” The ministry noted that, at the time, it was “not standard practice” to notify coalition partners of such reports.

The Dutch Defense Ministry requested CENTCOM to reassess its 2017 conclusion. As a result, the prosecution’s investigation and the ministry’s preliminary findings were forwarded to the U.S. authorities. In September of last year, CENTCOM reiterated that civilian casualties were unlikely, “without offering any substantive explanation,” according to Yeşilgöz.

Previously, the Dutch Defense Ministry had granted compensation to a family member of the victims of a September 2015 airstrike on a house in Mosul, in which four people were killed.