Investigation: Britain lied about their being no civilian casualties in Iraq.

The UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) killed civilians during its most recent bombing of Iraq, according to an investigation by the Guardian and the monitoring group Airwars. The report contradicts denials by the British government that RAF air raids, aimed at Islamic State terrorists, also killed noncombatants. The UK joined the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) in 2014 and carried out multiple airstrikes in Iraq and Syria through 2020, dropping more than 4,000 bombs. According to official figures from the UK's Ministry of Defence, the strikes killed 1,107 militants and one civilian in Syria, and 3,052 militants and not a single civilian in Iraq. The Guardian and Airwars reviewed 1,300 coalition documents and MoD documentation to identify 43 strikes that the RAF may have been involved in.

Eight strikes in the vicinity of Mosul were selected and researchers conducted interviews on the ground. The RAF has acknowledged 26 civilian casualties in Syria and Iraq, including two in a confirmed RAF airstrike on January 9, 2017. The British government has refused parliamentary requests to explain how it tracked civilian casualties, and retired air marshal Greg Bagwell told the Guardian that claiming there had been zero casualties was a "stretch". The Guardian noted that Britain passed a law in 2021 putting a six-year statute of limitations on any claims for damages, so that even if London eventually admits to the killings, the survivors will not be able to seek compensation.