Republish this articleThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. We encourage republication of our original content. Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site.Iraqi family sues Dutch government for deadly 2015 bombing by Jaclynn Ashly, The Real News Network June 2, 2025 Iraqi family sues Dutch government for deadly 2015 bombing by Jaclynn Ashly, The Real News Network June 2, 2025 Dekhla Rashid slaps down seven photographs onto the floor of her home in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit—one after another… after another… after another. She gently spreads them out on the tiles. “These are all my relatives the Dutch government killed,” she says, flatly. Most of the images are of smiling children. These are Rashid’s nephews and nieces, who were between the ages of seven months to 11 years. Dekhla Rashid and her nephew Najm and niece Tabarak hold up photos of their family members killed in the Dutch airstrike on Hawija. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly. Exactly a decade ago, on the night of June 2, 2015, the Dutch air force bombed a facility used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to manufacture explosive devices in the town of Hawija in Iraq’s northern Kirkuk Province, to which Rashid and her family had fled a year before. The secondary explosion from the strike was massive, flattening surrounding residential neighborhoods and damaging homes as far as five kilometers from the site. At least 85 civilians were killed and hundreds more were wounded. In a split second, Rashid’s brother, Abdallah Rashid Salih, lost one of his wives and nearly all of his children. Some families were completely wiped out. The bombing mission was one of some 2,100 raids carried out over Iraq and Syria by Dutch F-16s as part of the US-led international coalition against ISIS between 2014 and 2018. The bombing in Hawija was among the deadliest and most serious incidents during the operation. For years, senior government officials and ministers attempted to cover up and downplay the bloody incident, failing to report known civilian casualties and deliberately misinforming the Dutch parliament on the extent of damage caused by the airstrike. But in 2019, victims in Hawija filed a civil case against the Netherlands—which is still ongoing—demanding accountability and compensation. “The Dutch government needs to recognize that we are human beings, just like them,” says 56-year-old Rashid, sniffling through tears. A decade later, survivors are still struggling to put their lives back together. ‘ISIS is coming’ In June 2014, ISIS, known for their severe brutality and radical interpretations of Sharia law, took advantage of rising insecurity in the Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq and led a successful offensive on Mosul and Tikrit. Soon after, the Islamic Caliphate was declared, stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in northeastern Iraq. At its height, the caliphate controlled an area roughly the size of Portugal, spanning about 90,000 square kilometers, including about a third of Syria and 40% of Iraq. Rashid, her brother, and his entire family immediately fled their homes in Tikrit during the initial offensive. “We heard a lot of bullets and rockets being fired from ISIS,” Rashid tells TRNN. “We grabbed some basic items and left everything else behind us and just ran as fast as we could.” The second wife of Salih, Rashid’s brother, was shot and killed as she fled, just seven months after she gave birth to her first child. Owing to Hawija’s proximity to Kirkuk, just an hour’s drive away, scores of IDPs from across ISIS territory traveled there, hoping to find a route into Kurdish-controlled territory. Quickly, the Iraqi government requested military support from the United Nations to fight against ISIS, prompting the United States to appeal to other countries, including NATO members, to aid Iraq’s military efforts. More than 80 countries, including the Netherlands, joined the US-led international coalition that took part in Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). The operation consisted mostly of supporting Iraqi forces through airstrikes targeting ISIS infrastructure and leadership. The Netherlands was among the first European countries to send combat aircraft to Iraq. Each time Rashid and her family stopped somewhere to rest, they were warned by others fleeing that ISIS militants were coming. Eventually, they arrived in Hawija, about 100 kilometers away from Tikrit. Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with aerial support from the OIR coalition, successfully blocked ISIS’ advancement into the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. However, the militants were able to successfully overrun Hawija and controlled the town until October 2017. Around 650,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) fled into Kirkuk, beyond the reach of ISIS. But Rashid and her family did not make it there in time; they became trapped in Hawija, their lives suddenly transformed by the harsh realities of ISIS rule. Along with hundreds of other IDPs who had attempted to flee, Rashid and her family settled in the town’s central industrial area, which is interconnected with family homes and surrounded by densely populated civilian neighborhoods. According to Tofan Abdulwahab Awad, head of Al-Ghad League for Woman and Child Care—an Iraqi organization that has worked on documenting the aftermath of the bombing—owing to Hawija’s proximity to Kirkuk, just an hour’s drive away, scores of IDPs from across ISIS territory traveled there, hoping to find a route into Kurdish-controlled territory. “But these IDPs found themselves in a big jail,” Awad tells TRNN. “ISIS would allow the IDPs into Hawija, but they would not allow them to run to Kirkuk.” Any man who was caught was immediately executed, Awad says, and ISIS planted landmines on the informal routes from Hawija to Kirkuk, blowing up entire families who attempted to escape. Still, some IDPs were able to successfully bribe ISIS members to smuggle them further north. According to Awad, ISIS coerced the IDPs to settle around the town’s industrial area by prohibiting them from leaving the city limits and offering them free housing around a large warehouse that was encircled by a tall cement wall. The IDPs and residents in Hawija had no idea that this warehouse was being used by ISIS to manufacture vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBEIDs), store weapons and homemade explosives, and as a collection point for vehicles to distribute them from that location. According to a recent report, ISIS was storing about 50,000 to 100,000 kilograms of explosives at the facility. The exact number of IDPs who settled around the warehouse is unknown since many were transient—staying in Hawija for a night or two before finding a way further north. But there were likely at least hundreds of IDPs there, says Awad. “Of course, people who are desperate and have lost everything would accept the free housing around the warehouse,” Awad explains. “The city became very crowded with civilians.” “But the IDPs were being manipulated by ISIS to stay around that area so the group could use them as human shields to prevent the international coalition from targeting that warehouse.” ‘Judgement day’ Rashid and her brother’s family settled in the industrial zone next to a compound for fixing automobiles and paid rent for the first month. “We were very poor,” Rashid says. “So we didn’t have enough money to keep paying. But the landlord allowed us to stay for free after that.” According to Awad, the landlord was likely compensated by ISIS to encourage the family to stay there. On the night of June 2, Rashid was on the ground floor of their apartment with Najm, the infant whose mother was killed a year before when they fled Tikrit. The rest of the family was sleeping on the roof, escaping the heat of Iraq’s summer nights. When the clock struck midnight, without warning, an enormous explosion pummeled the town. “Everything turned red,” remembers Rashid. When the clock struck midnight, without warning, an enormous explosion pummeled the town. “Everything turned red,” remembers Rashid. “It felt like there was a powerful earthquake shaking the ground. I thought it was Judgement Day.” Rashid immediately threw herself on Najm to protect him from the blast. Following the explosion, an eerie stillness permeated the town, which had become submerged in complete darkness. Only a slight cast from the full moon illuminated Rashid’s surroundings. “Dust and shattered glass were everywhere,” Rashid says. A terrifying screech suddenly cut through the air. “I heard my brother yelling over and over again, ‘My whole family is gone!’” In the darkness, Rashid grabbed Najm and slowly made her way towards Rashid’s frantic screams. When she reached the roof, “I saw that the children were on the floor covered in blood. They were dead.” Rashid pauses as she breaks down in tears. She points at the photos laid out in front of her. One of the photos is of Rashid’s 32-year-old sister-in-law, Salih’s first wife, and another is of her 22-year-old niece, who had just graduated from university. The rest of the photographs are of Salih’s children, between the ages of seven months and 11 years old. Five-year-old Amal’s skull was shattered into two pieces; her brain fell out onto the ground. Yamama, 11, was still breathing, but her body was almost entirely cut in half; she died en route to the hospital. Mahmoud, Salih’s other seven-month-old, was found dead, with one of his eyes dangling outside of its socket. “I will never forget what I saw that night,” Rashid says, her voice shaking. Only three of Salih’s children survived, including Najm, the seven-month-old Rashid had protected during the explosion. Dekhla Rashid stands next to her nephew Najm, who was seven months old when his mother was killed by ISIS. He was one of the children who survived the Dutch bombing, which killed most of his siblings. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly. The dawn light revealed the devastating impact of the blast. “There was so much destruction,” Rashid recounts. “I truly thought it was the end of life on this planet.” According to Awad, more than 1,200 shops, homes, and public institutions, including schools, were completely obliterated in the explosion, while around 6,000 homes were damaged. Around 190 families in Hawija have at least one member who was confirmed killed or whose body is still missing after the attack, notes Awad. Some IDPs in Hawija did not bring their identity documents with them, especially if they were ever affiliated with the Iraqi government, military, or police—an immediate death sentence under ISIS rule. These unidentified bodies—and possibly more—were buried in mass grave sites in Hawija, to which the Iraqi government has not allowed organizations access, according to Saba Azeem, who heads projects in Iraq for PAX's Protection of Civilians team, a Dutch peace organization that has done extensive research and documentation of civilian experiences in Hawija. There are unofficial reports from Iraqi intelligence that civilian deaths from the strike surpassed 100. Rashid and her surviving family moved into another home and continued living in Hawija for months after the attack. “The whole area was under siege and all the roads were closed so there was nowhere for us to go,” she says. “Every time we heard a plane above us the children would start screaming and crying.” “We thought the international community was going to save us from ISIS,” Rashid adds. “But then they targeted us. We were living in constant fear. We felt like at any moment they were going to strike us again.” Residents in Hawija were so terrified of another attack from the coalition that they risked their lives desperately trying to flee into Kirkuk. Many were caught by ISIS and executed or blown up from mines, according to Awad. Unable to continue living in terror of another attack, Rashid, her brother, and his surviving children decided to take the dangerous journey back to Tikrit, walking throughout the night. When they arrived, they found their home there was also burned down and destroyed. “We were forced to start again from zero,” Rashid tells TRNN. ‘Constant lying’ For years, victims in Hawija had no idea who was exactly behind the airstrike. In 2018, in communications with parliament, the Dutch ministry of defense alluded to inquiries into incidents in which they may have been responsible for civilian casualties during the war against ISIS. Dutch journalists were able to trace some of this information back to Hawija. In 2019, four years after the strike, Dutch media reported for the first time that it was two Dutch F-16 fighter jets that dropped the bombs on the warehouse in Hawija, which caused the mega secondary explosion. This prompted human rights lawyers to visit the town and assist victims, including Rashid’s family, in filing a civil lawsuit against the Netherlands in October 2019. According to ​​Liesbeth Zegveld, a prominent human rights lawyer representing the victims and their families, the case against the Netherlands currently represents 300 claimants. If successful, the case’s outcome will apply to all other victims as well, she says. While the claimants are demanding compensation from the Dutch government, the court proceedings—which have involved some of the claimants, including Rashid’s brother Salih, traveling to the Hague to testify—are still establishing whether the Dutch military was liable for the damage. The claimants argue that the Dutch took an unreasonable risk when they bombarded Hawija, without having proper information on the amount of explosives at the site and the potential harm it would cause to the civilian population. If the court agrees, then compensation would follow, explains Zegveld. Photo from Hawija, showing the continued destruction 10 years after the 2015 airstrike that killed dozens. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly. Photo from Hawija, showing the continued destruction 10 years after the 2015 airstrike that killed dozens. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly. Photo from Hawija, showing the continued destruction 10 years after the 2015 airstrike that killed dozens. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly. The Dutch state has refused to take responsibility for the devastation, shifting blame to the United States for having provided incomplete intelligence before the airstrike and claiming they could not have known that the warehouse was surrounded by civilian populations. Earlier this year, however, a long-awaited report was published by the Committee Sorgdrager, an independent commission established in 2020 by the Dutch government and headed by Minister of State Winnie Sorgdrager, which has shattered the state’s defense. In the report, the commission reveals that senior Dutch government officials withheld important information from parliament on the extent of civilian casualties or shared incomplete information, even years after the airstrike. The Netherlands had too-little access to intelligence from its coalition partners, the committee says. As a result, the Netherlands appears to have relied entirely on US intelligence. This could make the United States equally liable for the devastation in Hawija, but “each party has to follow their own checks and balances,” explains Frederiek de Vlaming, a prominent criminologist and former director of the Nuhanovic Foundation, which has provided crucial support for victims during the court proceedings. “[The commission] has shown that the Dutch military did not follow their own checks and balances or procedures, and neglected their duty and responsibility to investigate cases where there’s a risk of civilian casualties,” explains Vlaming. While the United States is also responsible, it would be nearly impossible for victims to seek redress from the US owing to a 1946 law that preserves US forces’ immunity for claims that arise during war. The commission concluded that the Netherlands should and could have known that the area of the ISIS bomb factory was located in a populated area. Significantly, the commission concluded that the Netherlands should and could have known that the area of the ISIS bomb factory was located in a populated area. It pointed out that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had published information about the IDPs in Hawija’s industrial area months before the airstrike. According to the commission, coalition country representatives and pilots were aware of the residential neighborhoods around the target, with one individual even mentioning that there was a mosque nearby—a clear indicator of civilian infrastructure. Due to the presence of civilians in the area, the Dutch squad commander requested that the strike be delayed from 9PM to midnight, with the assumption that fewer civilians would be moving around the area at that time. This decision clearly shows that the Dutch military anticipated there would be civilians in the area. Furthermore, the ministry of defense had claimed that a video which had captured footage of the post-strike destruction was overwritten the day after the airstrike because it did not show anything important. But, in March, a few months after the commission report was published, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans announced that this video had been found at a military base. The video shows that the industrial area in Hawija had been completely wiped out after the airstrike and the residential areas surrounding it were destroyed and badly damaged. “What we have seen [from the state] is just constant lying,” Vlaming tells TRNN. “They have lied about everything for years and in different stages.” The commission also criticized community-based compensation schemes that the Netherlands provided to Hawija in 2021, following pressure from the Dutch parliament. This consisted of funding projects through the IOM and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) around infrastructure, basic services, and employment. These projects were completed in October 2022 and February 2023, more than seven years after the airstrike, with a total cost of €4.5 million. The commission concludes that this general compensation was “too little, too late.” Residents in Hawija have also stated the projects are a “drop in the ocean” compared to the devastation the Dutch military caused. The state has previously rejected individual compensation to victims and families of victims. Zegveld tells the TRNN that she expects the commission’s findings to significantly help the claimants’ case against the state. Rashid and her family are still haunted by the bombing a decade ago. “My brother doesn’t even do much now in his life except eat and cry,” Rashid says, her eyes fixed to the ground. “It’s like our lives are frozen into that one night. None of us can escape thinking about what we saw.” “It’s hard for us to even look at their pictures,” Rashid continues, glancing at the photographs still lined up on the floor. “These were children. They were pure and innocent. What crime did they commit?” Tabarak, Rashid’s niece who is now 18 years old, still suffers from night terrors. “Every night, I dream about what I saw that day,” Tabarak tells TRNN, sitting beside her aunt. “I have to relive it every single day.” Mohammed, Rashid’s nephew who is now 23, sometimes falls into psychosis, Rashid says; he suddenly begins screaming hysterically before coming back to reality. Some residents can no longer stand the sight of meat, she says, after witnessing their neighbors’ bodies ripped apart from the blast; others have attempted suicide. Residents are living with permanent and debilitating injuries. According to Azeem, from PAX, these experiences are common throughout Hawija. Some residents can no longer stand the sight of meat, she says, after witnessing their neighbors’ bodies ripped apart from the blast; others have attempted suicide. Residents are living with permanent and debilitating injuries. Many shops and businesses are still destroyed and unemployment is rampant. Without financial support, many have been unable to rebuild their lives even 10 years later. There has been no environmental testing or cleanup initiated in Hawija, according to Azeem. Residents tell TRNN that they have observed an increase in cancer cases and rare deformities in children, which they connect to toxic elements from the explosives still in the environment. Undoubtedly, financial compensation for affected individuals is badly needed. But, for Rashid, compensation is not the ultimate goal. “We want our rights,” Rashid says, her voice rising sharply. “We want the Dutch to admit what they did and take responsibility for the lives they destroyed. We lost our families, our children, our homes, our health, and our livelihoods. We lost everything. That is not something the Dutch can just ignore.” Despite the Netherlands continuing to dodge responsibility for their role in devastating the lives of numerous residents in Hawija, Rashid has found some hope in her pain. “The only thing that gives me strength to wake up each morning, even when I feel like dying, is that I know deep in my heart that we will get justice,” Rashid says, displaying a firmness that hitherto was masked by tears. “But it is up to the Dutch to decide from which court that justice will come: the Dutch court or the court of God.” This article first appeared on The Real News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.