Canadian Warplanes Accused of Killing Iraqi Civilians

January Strikes in Mosul the Subject of US Investigation

Early in their involvement in the air war against ISIS, Canadian military officials were insisting regularly that they were “confident” no civilians were being killed in any of the strikes. This was in keeping with the Pentagon narrative, that irrespective of allegations of a huge toll, none of the dead were civilians.

While the public denials sort of died down after awhile, the Canadian military never really addressed the matter again, and now it is revealed that Canadian pilots actually were accused, in mid-January, of killing civilians on the outskirts of Mosul, but the military didn’t discuss the issue.

Defense Minister Jason Kenney even told reporters earlier this month that he was “not aware” of a single allegation of civilian deaths, even though the military is now conceding that they knew of the allegations since January. It is unclear if they kept the DM in the dark on the matter.

The new revelations are that the Pentagon actually carried out an investigation into the reported killings, though the Canadian military insists they don’t have enough information on the incident to conduct an investigation of their own, and called for anyone with information to “come forward.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.