US coalition says IS command center destroyed

In this February 16, 2017 photo, Umm Mohammed, a resident of western Mosul, sits inside her tent in a camp east of Mosul. She didn't want to leave her home but her husband told her the alternative was that they would starve to death, because of a lack of food in the western part of the city. AP Photo/Bram Janssen

In this February 16, 2017 photo, Umm Mohammed, a resident of western Mosul, sits inside her tent in a camp east of Mosul. She didn't want to leave her home but her husband told her the alternative was that they would starve to death, because of a lack of food in the western part of the city. AP Photo/Bram Janssen

Published Feb 18, 2017

Share

Baghdad- The US-led military coalition

on Saturday said its forces destroyed a building in the main

medical complex of western Mosul, suspected to house an Islamic

State command center.

The militant group disputed the assertion, saying in an

online statement that Friday's strike killed 18 people, mostly

women and children, and wounded 47.

Independent media have no access to western Mosul or other

areas under Islamic State control in Iraq and Syria.

The militants are essentially under siege in western Mosul,

along with an estimated 650 000 civilians, after US-backed

forces surrounding the city dislodged them from the east in the

first phase of an offensive that concluded last month.

The coalition accused Islamic State of using the five-story

building as a military command and control facility.

"The coalition was able to determine through intelligence,

surveillance and reconnaissance efforts that ISIS did not use

the building for any medical purposes and that civilians were no

longer accessing the site," a coalition statement said, using an

acronym for Islamic State.

The strike followed reports that the militants are dug in

among civilians on the western side of Mosul and storing weapons

in hospitals, schools, mosques and churches as a tactic to avoid

targeting.

The offensive to dislodge Islamic State from Mosul, its last

major city stronghold in Iraq, started in October. The hardline

Sunni group declared in 2014 a self-styled caliphate that also

spans parts of Syria.

REUTERS

Related Topics: