Belgium probes devastating Mosul airstrikes that killed 200 civilians after admitting its F16 fighter jets were involved 

  • Belgium has opened an investigation into devastating March 17 Mosul airstrikes 
  • Belgium takes part in the US-led coalition against the ISIS, which has conducted tens of thousands of air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria
  • Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from the wreckage following airstrikes 

By Thomas Burrows for MailOnline

Published: | Updated:

Belgium has opened an investigation into the devastating Mosul airstrikes that left 200 civilians dead after admitting its F16 fighter jets were involved.

Casualty figures have varied considerably but it is thought more than 200 civilians were killed in strikes over several days in Mosul's al-Jadida area, and attention has focused on one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17.

Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from the wreckage, hampered by a lack of heavy equipment and the threat of ISIS drone bombs. 

Iraqi federal police are pictured here firing at Islamic State targets

Belgium takes part in the US-led coalition against the ISIS, which has conducted tens of thousands of air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria. Pictured are Iraqi federal police firing at Islamic State targets 

Prosecutors' spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told AFP: 'We have opened a preliminary investigation to establish...whether all procedures were observed during two incidents.

'If rules of engagement were properly observed... it is possible that no crime was committed.'

Belgian MP Wouter De Vriendt told Flemish broadcaster VRT the case involved strikes carried out by Belgian F16 fighter jets on March 17.

Iraqi forces have been operating in the area of the Old City for several weeks

Iraqi forces have been operating in the area of the Old City for several weeks

More than 105 people are believed to have been killed in the airstrikes on al-Jadida (pictured)

More than 200 people are believed to have been killed in the airstrikes on al-Jadida (pictured) 

An Iraqi man sits amid the rubble of destroyed houses in Mosul's al-Jadida area where the airstrikes hit 

An Iraqi man sits amid the rubble of destroyed houses in Mosul's al-Jadida area where the airstrikes hit 

An Iraqi man inspects the damage in Mosul's al-Jadida area following the devastating air strikes

An Iraqi man inspects the damage in Mosul's al-Jadida area following the devastating air strikes

Belgium takes part in the US-led coalition against the ISIS, which has conducted tens of thousands of air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The coalition insists ISIS has targeted civilians and used them as human shields, while acknowledging that strikes by anti-ISIS forces have also left civilians dead.  

Investigators are still looking into whether residents were forced into buildings that collapsed by ISIS to cause civilian casualties deliberately or whether they had fled there, seeking shelter. 

US investigators are also looking at the apparent bombing of a school in Mansura near Raqa, Syria on March 21, and a building next to a mosque on March 16 in Al-Jineh, in Aleppo province. 

307 CIVILIANS KILLED IN BOOBY TRAPS 

At least 307 civilians have been killed and 273 wounded in western Mosul since Feb 17 as Islamic State fighters herd people into booby-trapped buildings as human shields and fires on those who flee, the United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday.

This is an enemy that ruthlessly exploits civilians to serve its own ends, and clearly has not even the faintest qualm about deliberately placing them in danger,' U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

'It is vital that the Iraqi Security Forces and their Coalition partners avoid this trap,' he said, while calling for them to conduct transparent investigations into deadly incidents involving their forces. 

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U.S.-led military commanders supporting the Iraqi forces acknowledged on Tuesday the March 17 air strike is likely to have played a role in the civilian deaths in the al-Jadida district, but said ISIS could also be to blame.

The Ministry of Defence indicated there was nothing to suggest the RAF were involved in the raid that led to the civilian deaths. 

But Iraqi officials have been more cautious and instead blamed explosive booby-traps set by ISIS. 

Other witness accounts have said the terror group were responsible.

Ghazwan al-Dawoodi, head of the Nineveh human rights council, said his team had made a field visit, finding that militants had forced residents into a bunker, and opened fire on helicopter gunships to provoke a coalition airstrike.

Two separate witnesses described how ISIS had parked a truck packed with explosives next to the building. 

The vehicle may have gone up in an air strike, prompting the structure to collapse. 

A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of the Islamic State (IS) group in a tunnel that was reportedly used as a training centre by the jihadists, on March 1, 2017, in the village of Albu Sayf, on the southern outskirts of Mosul

A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of the Islamic State (IS) group in a tunnel that was reportedly used as a training centre by the jihadists, on March 1, 2017, in the village of Albu Sayf, on the southern outskirts of Mosul

Widad Ibrahim, right, sits outside her house near the old city during fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants on the western side of Mosul on Thursday

Widad Ibrahim, right, sits outside her house near the old city during fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants on the western side of Mosul on Thursday

Iraqi forces are now 500 metres from the al-Nuri Mosque, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria in July 2014

Iraqi forces are now 500 metres from the al-Nuri Mosque, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria in July 2014

Witnesses in Mosul have described the horrific scenes after the 'tragic' air strike on March 17

Witnesses in Mosul have described the horrific scenes after the 'tragic' air strike on March 17

Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul, the country's second city, in October, retaking its eastern side before setting their sights on its smaller but more densely-populated west.  

Iraqi forces have been operating in the area of the Old City for several weeks, and they are now 500 metres from the al-Nuri Mosque, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria in July 2014. 

The fall of Mosul, Iraq's second city, would be a major setback for ISIS following months of losses in Iraq and neighbouring Syria. The city also holds huge symbolic significance for the terror group.  

In neighbouring Syria, three separate forces are advancing on the city of Raqqa, the main Syrian city under ISIS control.   

The United Nations has warned around 400,000 people are 'trapped' in the central Mosul area under siege-like conditions as Iraqi forces battle the ISIS for the city's west.  

Food is running short and security is fragile even in liberated areas. 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today: 'We don't have the resources necessary to support these people.' 

Hind Taha, a western Mosul resident, told Associated Press: 'There is no money, no market, no food. We are living just on aid.' 

The Reach Initiative, a group that helps aid groups collect data on humanitarian crises, said the situation in west Mosul was 'severe to extremely severe'.

'In areas still under (ISIS control), there is no access to markets and people are surviving on depleting food and water stocks, without access to electricity, fuel and healthcare,' it said.     

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