UPDATED: Warplane kills 12 civilians in western Mosul, IS execute 5

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Unidentified warplanes on Tuesday killed 12 civilians in a western Mosul neighborhood where Iraqi forces are advancing towards the Islamic State militants’ last enclave, according to local sources, while militants executed five.

Shafaaq News quoted residents of al-Boursa (stock market) area saying that the strike demolished the civilians’ residence in the district.

Al-Boursa is part of Bab Sinjar, an entrance to the Old City, Islamic State’s last entrenchment in western Mosul which government troops started invading on Sunday. Earlier on Tuesday, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said its troops invaded al-Shifa district, the last IS-held area adjacent to the Old City.

Meanwhile, other residents told Shafaaq News that Islamic State members executed five civilians who were trying to flee Mayadin area in the Old City to areas held by security forces via Tigris River. They website did not mention where and how the execution was carried out.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, retook eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants in January, and pushed for the western side in mid February. Only a few hundred militants are thought to be under siege in the Old City from where the group first declared its control over a third of Iraq and a third of Syria in 2014.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in botched strikes by security forces and the allied U.S.-led coalition, which recently admitted causing the death of more than 350 civilians since 2014. Others have been killed by IS snipers or caught and executed upon trying to flee areas held by the group in Mosul to others controlled by security troops.