LONDON: An Iraqi man who claims 35 members of his family were killed in an Australian Defense Force airstrike in Mosul in 2017 will not receive compensation.
The man, who lives in Iraq and wishes to remain anonymous, has requested an “act of grace” from the Australian government, rIt’sclaiming a settlement of the order of a few hundred thousand Australian dollars.
Such financial compensation is awarded where evidence is provided that the actions of Australian persons concernIt’sThey lead to unintended consequences.
However, the plaintiff’s case was rejected in December 2021, although the person dealingIt’s la rIt’sclaim did not have access to an Australian Army file on the incident. The latter considered that there was insufficient evidence confirming that civilians had died as a result of this action.
The incident in question occurred as part of an Australian Defense Force attack on militants in Daech in Mosul on June 13, 2017, which accidentally hit a residential building in the Al-Shafaar neighborhood. The man claims that 14 children were among the dead, as well as nine women and two imams who had taken refuge with them.
Evidence provided included statements made by members of the Australian military in February 2019 – including the Force Marshal aIt’snians and head of opsIt’sjoint rations, Mel Hupfeld – that Australian planes had dropped bombs in the area that day.
Hupfeld said the strikes were launched by Iraqi forces fighting Daech, and that coalition forces only became aware of allegations that they had hit civilian targets following a report was published by the independent website Airwars some time later, making fact-checking difficult .
He added that these allegations were “possible”, but that estimates indicated that 6 to 18 people had been killed. A 2019 U.S. Department of Defense report also said the allegations were “credible.”It’sdibles,” estimating that 11 people were dead.
“We don’t know for sure how these people were killed, but we know from our review of events that our crew made no mistakes on this mission. He aimed maniisre specifies the designated target in accordance with the rules of engagement. All strike authorizations were valid and legal,” Hupfeld said.
“There was no specific intelligence indicating that civilians were present at the targeted site, but given the circumstances imperatives faced by Iraqi forces at the time, it was impossible to be certain,” he added. “We do not blame Iraqi security forces for this event or incident. We are very aware of the risk of inflicting civilian casualties in a very intense and complex war zone.”
“The action in Mosul was the toughest air campaign we have seen in our generation. It is an unfortunate consequence of the war that these civilian casualties occurred, and as I said, it is a point that is taken into consideration.It’sration”, he also specified.
Lawyers reprIt’sfeeling the Iraqi plaintiff requested on March 29 an internal review of the case and requested that a new representative be in charge of the case.
For Jacinta Lewis SC, “to the extent that there is uncertainty regarding the precise details of the Australian air strikes, it is the product of the Defense’s refusal to provide information regarding them”.
“The Defense denial should strengthen, rather than weaken, the conclusion that there is a real likelihood that the Australian airstrikes were responsible for the deaths,” she concluded.
This text is the translation of an article published on Arabnews.com
