Four children killed in shelling west of Rutba
Iraqi F-16 fighter jets. File photo.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Four children were killed as houses of civilians were shelled, west of Rutba town, western Anbar province.
“Military jets bombed houses of civilians in the west of Rutba, located 350 KM west of Ramadi,” Emad al-Dulaimi, mayor of the town, told Al-Sumaria News on Wednesday.
“Four children were killed as result of the bombing,” he said urging investigations on the accident.
Rutba is controlled by security troops, however, the town faces IS militants attacks every now and then that are being encountered by security.
Iraqi forces and US-led international coalition were slammed due to the fall of hundreds of civilian casualties by air strikes and explosions.
Anbar’s western regions still host some Islamic State strongholds that are occasionally pounded by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition fighter jets. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.
It is believed that the Iraqi government will not aim at western Anbar before its forces are done with retaking Mosul.
Recent airstrikes targeted the location of meetings believed to have been chaired by IS supreme commander, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose survival remains a matter of question.