The Hawija massacre returned to the fore a few days ago, after a study conducted by researchers from the Iraqi non-governmental organization “Al-Ghad”, the “Pax” peace organization, and the University of Utrecht shed light on it again after interviews it conducted with 119 victims and 40 key figures in society such as Mayor of Hawija I mapped out the impact of the ill-fated attack on the Iraqis in that region.
Seven years after the bombing of the city, the suffering of the survivors still reminds them every day of the tragedy that befell them while waiting for justice to be shown, as Abdullah did not know that those were the last moments he would see his family after they were killed in bombing of the international coalition While they were sleeping on the roof of the house on the night of June 2, 2015.
On that day, coalition planes, according to witnesses, flew for several hours over the town of Hawija, which was under the control of the terrorist Daesh, and the terrifying bombing took place after the organization took control of the town and declared it one of its alleged states.
His daughter was divided in two
In a statement to Al Arabiya.net, the stricken man added that he had lost 7 members of his 15-member family, adding that at twelve o’clock that fateful night he heard the sound of a plane hovering in the sky of the city.
Displaced from Hawija (AFP)
Then, moments later, he witnessed the launch of a missile from a plane, so that the area lived during the day after total darkness within a few seconds, followed by a frightening bombing, carrying with it parts of buildings, homes, iron roofs and deadly shrapnel as if a nuclear bomb had been thrown at them, as he put it.
He also described in tears that he rushed to the roof of his house and found his daughter split in two, stressing that they are tragic moments that cannot be forgotten, especially after parts of the house fell on top of the rest of the family and killed his wife and other children.
In addition, he made it clear that he did not know that there was a warehouse for ISIS weapons near them, and that the planes that bombed knew that there were civilians living near the targeted place, calling on the international community, human rights organizations and the United Nations to pressure the Dutch government and officially apologize and compensate the families of the fallen victims. In this wrong bombing.
year without food
Ghazi Abbas was not in a better condition, as he explained to Al Arabiya.net that after the heavy bombing that threw him and his family away, shrapnel came from pieces of iron, pieces of cars and stones from the buildings, as if they were a torrential torrent or as if the sky had started raining deadly shrapnel on them.
Regarding his injury, he stated that a piece of iron penetrated his lower jaw and he almost lost his life, as he has been unable to eat for more than a year due to fractures in the lower jaw that led to the crushing of teeth as a result of the strike that targeted an ISIS site around which civilians gathered.
He added that the years could not cancel the psychological impact of the injury, calling on the Dutch government and the international coalition led by the United States of America to present an official apology to the families of the victims and compensate them financially and morally because they lost their most valuable possessions on that terrifying day.
A cigarette saved his life
For his part, Thamer Hamad Abdullah confirmed that he narrowly escaped from certain death that night, but he lost his brother and nephew in the Hawija massacre.
He told Al-Arabiya.net that, with only 30 seconds, he was earning his life and losing his brother. The brother was injured and died of his wounds, along with his young son and wife.
He explained that he was with them moments ago, but he was late to the roof of the house by 30 seconds because of a cigarette he was drinking in disguise from the eyes of ISIS, which caused him to escape certain death.
While he reported that his father passed away after a period of mourning for his brother, who was killed in this blow, and the bereaved mother is still suffering from the terrible calamity.
Cancer cases and deformed fetuses!
In addition, the director of the Al-Ghad Organization in the city of Kirkuk, a flood, said that the incident was a great catastrophe, stressing that the Dutch government did not pay any attention to the tragedy, did not recognize and did not intervene to treat the effects of the least.
He also explained that the site of the explosion contained chemicals, and its effect is still present, causing cancerous cases as well as deformed births and countless psychological effects.
He revealed that they had filed lawsuits in the Dutch judiciary against the Dutch Ministry of Defense, which targeted civilians without any trace of armed terrorist groups in it.
They also held a conference to introduce the story of the strike and the effects that were forgotten 7 years ago, and its victims were innocent civilians and children who had no fault but that they were in the wrong place.
Wrong strike.. unfulfilled promises
It is noteworthy that the Netherlands had carried out a wrong air strike in 2015 on the Iraqi town of Hawija, which killed 85 civilians, justifying that failure to do so may enhance the emergence of terrorist groups in the future. In 2019, the Dutch government acknowledged the killing of 70 people, including civilians and ISIS fighters, as a result of this attack on an ammunition factory on the night of June 2 to 3, 2015.
It also stated in a letter to Parliament that the targeted factory, located in an industrial area, contained more explosives than expected, which caused a lot of collateral damage.
The arrest of ISIS hiding among the displaced from Hawija – archive
By the end of 2020, it pledged 4 million euros for reconstruction. But according to the study, this commitment has not yet translated, 7 years after the attack, into actual reconstruction.
That attack was one of about 34,000 air strikes carried out by the US-led international coalition on Iraq and Syria, according to the study.