Shafaq News– Kirkuk

On Thursday, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans apologized for a 2015 airstrike in Iraq’s Hawija district that killed dozens of civilians during the fight against ISIS.

Addressing local officials, including Kirkuk Governor Rebwar Taha, and families of the victims during a visit to Kirkuk, Brekelmans inspected the strike site, southwest of the city, and acknowledged delays in confronting the incident. “Yes, we were late in dealing with this mistake,” he said. “We apologize for an error based on inaccurate intelligence that led to the killing of civilians.”

Dutch warplanes carried out the strike on June 2, 2015, when Hawija was under ISIS control. The attack targeted what Dutch forces believed was an ISIS explosives site, but a massive secondary explosion tore through nearby residential neighborhoods. Official assessments indicated that about 70 civilians were killed, alongside extensive destruction of homes, factories, and government buildings.

In 2019, the Dutch government acknowledged that the Hawija operation caused civilian casualties, citing operational errors and the unexpected scale of the blast, while residents have continued to demand financial compensation, which experts estimate could reach tens of millions of dollars.

Brekelmans said Dutch law does not allow individual compensation payments for all those affected, but his country has deployed teams in Baghdad and Erbil to coordinate with Hawija’s local administration on projects intended to benefit the wider community.