Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans (VVD) offered apologies on Friday on behalf of the cabinet to the victims and their relatives of the bombing at Hawija in Iraq in 2015. This is reported by the ANP news agency. 85 people died in the bombing. The government will also investigate whether the Netherlands can help HaWija with the reconstruction. That is on top of the slightly more than 4 million euros that has already been set aside for the Iraqi city.
At the end of January, a committee of inquiry led by former minister Winnie Sorgdrager presented a number of sharp conclusions about the bombing and its handling. For example, Dutch and American soldiers would have consciously taken risks in the bombing, which was aimed at a bomb factory of the Islamic State (IS). They should have known that people lived and worked in the vicinity of the factory, according to the investigation of the Sorgdrager committee.
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In addition, the Sorgdrager committee examined the actions of the Ministry of Defense. Defense would have adopted a passive attitude after the bombing. For example, an investigation has never been requested from the United States – the party that was in charge of the bombing. The House of Representatives was also not informed, something that according to the committee of inquiry could also have been confidential.
The cabinet has taken over the most important conclusions of the Sorgdrager committee, that too little manpower was available to properly assess the soundness of the intelligence material. The cabinet also acknowledges that the Chamber has been informed incorrectly and incompletely. The Defense Minister has also apologized for this.
According to Brekelmans, the attack was legally ‘lawful’. “But if you look at the human suffering that was unintentionally caused, that is of course terrible.” The minister also transferred these apologies to the mayor of Hawija this week.