AFP - An air strike in Iraq
has killed dozens of civilians in an area near the Syrian border still
controlled by the Islamic State group, officials said.
The deadly strike
came as Iraqi forces battled jihadists deep inside Mosul, edging closer to the
River Tigris that divides the city and looking for a breakthrough in the
seven-week-old offensive.
The speaker of
Iraq's parliament, Salim al-Juburi condemned the air strike "that targeted
a market area for civilians and resulted in the death and injury of dozens of
them" in the town of Al-Qaim.
If confirmed, the
blunder would be one of the worst cases of civilians being killed in strikes in
Iraq since the start of the air campaign against IS in 2014.
Officials in Anbar,
the western province in which Al-Qaim is located, said dozens were killed in
the afternoon strike, although AFP could not reach sources in the town to
confirm the casualty toll.
A spokesman for the
provincial council of Anbar claimed the strike was carried out by an Iraqi
aircraft in the afternoon.
"The strike hit
a market at peak hour, there were retirees queueing up pick up their pension,
people collecting salaries and social security payments," Eid Ammash said
"Entire
families were killed," he said.
Another officials
blamed the strike on the US-led coalition that has carried out thousands of air
strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
There was no
immediate comment from Iraq's Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight
against IS and the coalition denied carrying out any strikes in the area at the
time.
"We didn't
conduct strikes in the area at the time of the incident," coalition
spokesman Colonel John Dorrian told AFP.
- Army pinned back
in Mosul -
Meanwhile in east
Mosul, the 9th Armoured Division had reached Al-Salam hospital in a push on
Tuesday, the farthest the army had penetrated into the city since the start of
a broad offensive launched on October 17.
But it quickly found
itself surrounded by jihadists and needed support from the elite
Counter-Terrorism Service to pull back, commanders said.
"Our forces
dealt with the situation at Al-Salam hospital" in southeastern Mosul, Maan
Saadi, a CTS commander, told AFP.
"Our mission
was to offer support to the 9th Division forces surrounded in the hospital, our
units accomplished this mission and opened a passage," he said.
Saadi said the army
was now occupying a position nearly one kilometre (less than a mile) from the
hospital, which a 9th Division commander said had been used by IS as a command
centre.
The five-storey
building towers above the neighbourhood and the jihadists had been using the
upper floors and roof as sniper positions for some time, Mosul residents said.
The IS-affiliated
Amaq news agency said the jihadists had carried out five suicide car bomb
attacks in the area inflicted heavy losses on the army.
CTS has spearheaded
the drive into Mosul in the past month, retaking several neighbourhoods in the
east of the city.
The army also
punched into Mosul in November but its progress has been slower and Iraqi
forces barely control half of the eastern side of the city.
Saadi said his
forces had retaken two neighbourhoods in eastern Mosul and were aiming to flush
out jihadists from two more in the coming days.
"We are now in
Al-Taamim which is three kilometres (two miles) from the river, including an
open area of about one kilometre where there are no buildings," he said.
- Water crisis -
Forces on the
southern and northern fronts made quick early gains when Iraq launched its
largest military operation in years but progress has been slow in recent days.
One of the main
factors hampering Iraqi forces in Mosul is the continued presence of hundreds
of thousands of civilians, who either want to stay in their homes or are
prevented from leaving by IS.
The United Nations
on Wednesday put the overall number of people displaced by the offensive at
more than 82,000, less than half the number the UN expected before the
offensive.
It its latest
situation report, the UN spoke of spiralling civilian casualties as Iraqi
forces went house to house in east Mosul, attempting to battle jihadists and
protect civilians at the same time.
"Partners are
rushing to bring trauma care closer to the front lines to give injured
civilians the best chance of survival," the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said.
It said work was
also under way to repair water and electricity infrastructure in east Mosul,
where it described the current water shortage as "critical".
The conditions for
those massing in the camps on the city's outskirts were hardly better, with the
onset of winter bringing freezing temperatures at night.
AFP
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