ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Netherlands’ defense minister on Thursday met with local officials in Kirkuk province to discuss mechanisms for compensating victims of a Dutch airstrike carried out in 2015 in the Hawija district, which killed more than 70 people.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans held talks with Kirkuk Governor Rebwar Taha, focusing on a compensation framework that the Dutch government is preparing for victims of the airstrike. At the time of the attack, Hawija, located southwest of Kirkuk, was under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS).
In 2019, the Netherlands publicly admitted for the first time that one of its F-16 fighter jets, operating as part of the US-led coalition against ISIS, was responsible for the June 2, 2015 strike. The attack targeted what was believed to be an ISIS bomb-making facility but resulted in the deaths of over 70 people, including civilians and ISIS members.
According to the Dutch defense ministry, the facility was suspected of producing vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in attacks against coalition forces.
"On behalf of the Dutch government, I personally offered apologies in Hawija for the fact that unintended civilian casualties occurred during the 2015 airstrike in the war against ISIS," Brekelmans wrote on X.
Raad Salih, an Arab member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, said the bombing struck Hawija’s industrial neighborhood, “completely destroying it.”
“Entire families were killed in the airstrike, in addition to the extensive material damage left behind,” Salih added.
Brekelmans’ visit comes just over two months after the Netherlands’ ambassador to Iraq conducted a field visit to Hawija for the same purpose, underscoring growing diplomatic efforts to address the aftermath of the strike.
Hawija was one of ISIS’s strongest bastions in Iraq following the group’s 2014 expansion and was repeatedly targeted by coalition airstrikes. The district was recaptured by Iraqi forces in 2017.
The Netherlands has been a member of the Global Coalition against ISIS since its formation in September 2014, contributing military training for Iraqi forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga.
Although ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, the group continues to carry out sporadic attacks, particularly in disputed areas between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government in Baghdad.