14 civilians killed in US-led coalition airstrikes in Mosul

More than a dozen Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the US-led coalition airstrikes in the eastern part of Mosul, which was cleared of Daesh terrorists by Iraq’s armed forces in January.

Iraq’s Shafaq News website said the fatalities occurred on Saturday after US-led warplanes targeted a car loaded with explosives in al-Nabi Shiet district of eastern Mosul, killing at least 14 members of three families in the area.

Iraqi also said the coalition strikes had also bombed a base near Mosul and killed seven senior Daesh commanders, among them four Saudi Arabian nationals.

The developments come as Iraqi forces are engaged in military operation aimed at liberating the western sector of Mosul from Daesh.

On the western front, Abu Hamza Maghrebi, a terrorist responsible for a recent bomb attack in northwestern Nineveh Province, was confirmed dead in an airstrike on the al-Islah al-Zeraei neighborhood in western Mosul.

Commander of Federal Police Forces Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat also announced that security forces had launched a series of surprise attacks against Daesh fortifications, killing 16 members of the Takfiri group.

Daesh militants overran Mosul in June 2014 shortly after launching a campaign of terror and destruction in the western and northern parts of Iraq.

In January, Iraqi government forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units - better known in Arabic as Hashd al-Sha’abi -- managed to liberate the eastern quarter of Mosul from the clutches of Daesh terrorists, three months after launching the operation to regain control of the country’s second-largest city.

On February 19, Iraqi soldiers and Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters mounted a new offensive to liberate western Mosul.

The United States and some its allies have been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq since June 2014 allegedly targeting Daesh terrorists. The raids, which have done little to dislodge the terror group, have on numerous occasions claimed many civilian lives and inflicted damage on the country’s infrastructure.

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