ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Up to 27 bystander civilians may have been killed by Canadian airstrikes in the north of Iraq, Canadian media outlets quoting US military officials are reporting.
The CBC claimed that it has obtained a Pentagon document that raised questions about the quality of the investigation conducted by coalition forces into an allegation that 27 civilians lost their lives because of an airstrike carried out by Canadian CF-18 fighter jets at a key highway near Mosul in late January 2015.
According to the document, the bombs dropped by the Canadian fighters targeted an area known as Kisik Junction near Mosul. Canadian military accounts previously said that on January 21 the Canadian air force launched four airstrikes—including one near Kisik Junction—in a bid to destroy an Islamic State sniper or heavy machinegun in the area.
"A Canadian strike (CF-18) struck an ISIL sniper/heavy machine gun position on the roof of a building within an ISIL occupied compound which correlates with the alleged report," the document read.
The main source of the allegation that has given credibility to the allegation is a Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was serving among Peshmerga that were at the time launching a major offensive to take back this key junction from ISIS militants.
The Canadian military determined the allegation was “non-credible,” said it didn’t investigate the claim because it found no supporting evidence and continues to insist it has no proof that any civilians died in the attack.
"The [Canadian Air Force] review identified that there were no substantive grounds to believe that civilians had been killed," Canadian Armed Forces Public Affairs Officer Capt. Kirk Sullivan told CBC.
In July, Canadian navy Capt. Paul Forget in a briefing said: “Canada is quite confident that with all the strikes that we’ve executed, there is absolutely no evidence of civilian casualties associated with our strikes.”
“It should be noted that (Canadian Joint Operations Command’s) legal opinion is that under the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) there is no obligations for the (Canadian Armed Forces) to conduct an investigation,” the US document states, according to the CBC.
