Airstrikes in western Anbar leave 15 civilian casualties: agency
Iraqi fighter jet file photo.
A woman and a child were killed and 13 other civilians were wounded in an airstrike by unknown military aircraft at a residential area at the city of al-Qaem, Islamic State’s biggest pocket in the province, Sputnik News agency quoted a local source as saying.
This is not the first time botched airstrikes leave civilian casualties since Iraqi government troops and allied U.S.-led air forces launched a campaign to drive IS militants out of Iraq.
A similar airstrike at Qaem’s al-Karabla region on January 6th left five civilians dead and 16 others injured.
In December, fighter jets, believed to be Iraqi, killed at least 130 civilians by mistake, also in Qaem. The incident sparked wide-scale condemnation in Iraq, and generals at the Iraqi military and the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq denied responsibility for the airstrike.
An airstrike targeting a medical unit supposedly occupied by Islamic State militants in the Mosul district of Hammam al-Alil last October killed eight civilians, according to Human Rights Watch, which urged air forces engaged in battles against the group to ensure civilians’ safety.