Coalition jets, mortar missiles kill 5 civilians in western Mosul
Iraqi firefighters look for bodies buried under the rubble, of civilians who were killed after an air strike against Islamic State triggered a massive explosion in Mosul. REUTERS/Stringer
Anadolu Agency quoted Lt. Yahia Hamid, an officer at the army’s elite Counter-Terroris Forces, saying that three members of one family were killed and two others were wounded in a “mistaken” airstrike by the coalition jets at al-Sekak district, a neighborhood which the Iraqi command said it took over from IS two days ago.
No comment has been made by the coalition or the Iraqi command concerning the report.
Two other civilians were killed and nine others were wounded in a separate incident when mortar shells landed on al-Resala district, also in western Mosul, Col. Ahmed al-Jubouri, an officer at the Joint Operations Command, told Anadolu Agency.
He said the victims were killed and wounded while extracting water from a local well.
In eastern Mosul, where Iraqi security forces became in total control in January, the agency quoted Maj. Hussein al-Ezzawi, a local police officer, saying that civilians found four dead bodies at Sumer district, near the eastern bank of the Tigris River.
Ezzawi told the agency the victims had apparently been blindfolded and shot from a short distance, saying the bodies could belong to Islamic State members.
Hundreds of civilians died in botched airstrikes by coalition and Iraqi fighter jets since operations launched in October to retake Mosul. Hundreds others were also killed in Islamic State bombardments, suicide attacks and executions while trying to flee areas held by the group in the western side of the city over the past weeks.