Though the Dutch Defense Ministry insists that no details of the incidents nor the probes into them will be made publicly, the Netherlands government has informed parliament that they are conducting probes into some of the airstrikes carried out in Iraq over civilian deaths.
Parliament has been pushing for details on the ISIS war and the airstrikes, though the Defense Ministry insists that “operational reasons” mean they won’t make public any of the “regrettable number of civilian deaths” from their airstrikes.
The admission comes as something of a surprise, both because most of the nations involved in the strikes deny all civilian casualties as a matter of course, and because the Netherlands’ involvement only amounts to four F-16 warplanes.
Those plans are designed to provide air support for ground troops, but have been carrying out general airstrikes since October of 2014. They are currently scheduled to continue the strikes until July, and the unpopularity of civilian casualties are likely to stall any further extensions.
I hope that the reason is that the Dutch remember that the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940 did not result in peace but engendered feelings of revenge which eventually spawned the Dutch resistance.