2017 Mosul Airstrike

On 17 March 2017, an American airstrike struck a structure in the al-Aghawat al-Jadidah (al-Jadida) neighborhood of western Mosul, Iraq, resulting in mass civilian casualties. Estimates of the death toll varied widely across sources and over time, ranging from 105 to 278 civilians killed. The incident is described as the largest single death toll inflicted by a coalition air strike since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The strike occurred during the broader offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which had held the city since 2014. Coalition forces liberated eastern Mosul on 24 January 2017 and began advancing into the western half of the city shortly after. In February 2017, the Trump administration announced it would sharply escalate U.S. support for the Mosul offensive. The Pentagon later reported that approximately 1,400 munitions were used in the final two weeks of March 2017. Bassma Bassim, head of the Mosul District Council, stated that air raids between 10 and 17 March alone killed more than 500 civilians.

Some residents of al-Jadida reported that the airstrike detonated an explosive-filled truck, collapsing buildings packed with families. A Pentagon investigation, concluded on 25 May 2017, found that a U.S. aircraft delivered a single GBU-38 JDAM precision-guided bomb intending to target two ISIL snipers on the second story of a structure. Officials said the bomb caused a large cache of ISIL explosives to detonate, leading to a catastrophic building collapse onto civilians sheltering below. The Pentagon assessment put the confirmed death toll at least 105, while noting eyewitness reports of 36 additional civilians in the building whose status could not be determined due to insufficient evidence.

Accounts of the death toll fluctuated substantially during the investigation period. The Iraqi military initially blamed ISIL for the deaths, citing 61 bodies recovered from a booby-trapped house and stating there was no indication of an airstrike; this was contradicted by on-the-ground reports. A provincial health official told Reuters that 160 bodies had been recovered from the neighborhood. On 27 March, Iraq's Civil Defense Department cited a figure of 531 bodies recovered from the area. On 28 March, the monitoring group Airwars reported at least 101 civilians killed, while noting reports that Iraqi artillery may have also struck the area and that ISIL may have been involved. The Los Angeles Times reported on 24 March that local officials estimated at least 200 deaths, and on 5 April reported that Iraqi officials stated 278 bodies, many of them children, had been removed from the area.

Following the airstrike, the Iraqi Army temporarily halted its advance into western Mosul. The incident drew reactions from international bodies including Amnesty International, the United Nations, and Human Rights Watch, as well as from the governments of Iraq, Iran, Russia, Belgium, Australia, and the Vatican.