Coalition raids kill 5 civilians near Daesh-held Mosul

By Jamal Badrani and Ibrahim Saleh

NINEVEH, Iraq

At least five civilians were killed Wednesday by airstrikes carried out by U.S.-led coalition aircraft in and around Daesh-held Mosul, according to Iraqi military sources.

"Mosul’s forensic medicine department received the bodies of five civilians early Wednesday, along with those of eight Daesh militants killed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Mosul’s Al-Qahira district on the east bank of the Tigris River," Iraqi army officer Younis Khalil al-Taie said.

"Mosul’s general hospital, meanwhile, received seven civilians severely injured in the same air raid," al-Taie told Anadolu Agency.

"Unarmed civilians are being killed in these raids because Daesh militants have positioned themselves in residential neighborhoods without any regard for civilians’ welfare," he said.

In a related development, the Iraqi army announced the capture of a major oilfield northeast of Mosul.

"The army’s 16th Brigade has taken the Talkeif oilfield along the Mosul axis," read an Iraqi army statement issued Wednesday.

-Displacement

On the same day, Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration announced that some 10,000 people had been forced to flee their homes near Mosul since the campaign began early last week.

"The latest number for displaced people from the districts and villages of Nineveh province [of which Mosul is the regional capital] has reached 9,795 -- representing some 1,670 families -- since the campaign began 10 days ago," read a ministry statement.

"The ministry has taken all steps necessary to provide the displaced with shelter," the statement added, going on to note that camps had been set up capable of accommodating some 250,000 people.

On Oct. 18, the Iraqi army -- backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes -- launched a much-anticipated operation to retake Mosul, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.