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Civilian casualties possible in US-led strike on Iraq hospital: Pentagon

Friday, 30 December 2016 1:49 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 30 December 2016 1:53 AM ]

A formation of US Navy F-18E Super Hornets flies over northern Iraq in this file photo. (Photo by Reuters)

Scores of civilians are believed to have lost their lives when the so-called US-led coalition carried out an airstrike against purported positions of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in Iraq’s troubled northern province of Nineveh.

The US military said the aerial attack was initially thought to have struck a van carrying Daesh militants near the militant-held city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad, on Thursday.

The strike took place “in what was later determined to be a hospital compound parking lot resulting in possible civilian casualties,” the Combined Joint Strike Force said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement asserted that Daesh members had been detected firing an anti-tank gun "before loading the weapon in the van and driving off."

It stated that the fatal attack would be “fully investigated and the findings released in a timely and transparent manner.”

On December 9, at least 90 Iraqi soldiers were killed when US Air Force fighter jets struck their position in Mosul.

An Iraqi army source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some 100 soldiers were also wounded as a result of the attack. Eight infantry fighting vehicles and four Humvee military trucks were also destroyed during the US strike.

Iraqis search through rubble after a US-led coalition airstrike targeted a Shia mourning ceremony in the town of Daquq, south of the city of Kirkuk, on October 21, 2016. (Photo by Iraqi al-Ghadeer TV network)

At least 15 women lost their lives and scores of other civilians sustained injuries on October 21, when US-led military aircraft targeted a Shia place of worship in the town of Daquq, located 30 kilometers south of Kirkuk.

On October 5, at least 20 Iraqi pro-government fighters were killed and five others injured when the US-led coalition targeted their position in the Kharaeb village of the al-Qayyarah region, located approximately 300 kilometers north of Baghdad.

The United States and some its allies have been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq since June 2014 allegedly targeting Daesh terrorists in the northern and western parts of the conflict-plagued Arab country.

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