After the strike
April 4, 2022
Exposing the civilian harm effects of the 2015 Dutch airstrike on Hawija
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On the night of 2-3 June 2015, two Dutch F-16s targeted a factory for vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) in use by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the city of Hawija, Iraq.
The strike was carried out as part of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) and the larger US-led Coalition against ISIS. The airstrike caused a large secondary explosion which resulted in the destruction of a major share of the industrial neighbourhood of Hawija and led to severe civilian harm.
This report is the product of a joint research by Al-Ghad League for Woman and Child Care, PAX and the Intimacies of Remote Warfare (IRW) project at Utrecht University. It informs on the human impact of the airstrike, primarily through interviews with 119 victims, supplemented with visual material, interviews with 40 key informants, 4 focus group discussions, field trips and
secondary literature.