50 civilians casualties in Mosul shelling, 200 rescued
Iraqi firefighters look for bodies buried under the rubble, of civilians who were killed after an air strike against Islamic State triggered a massive explosion in Mosul. REUTERS/Stringer
Alnoor News website, quoting a medical source at Mosul’s public hospital, said the missile hit a market in Mosul al-Jadida, leaving 10 dead and 40 wounded.
No official statement has been made yet regarding the reported incident.
Mosul al-Jadida had previously been the stage for civilian massacres in March, when airstrikes left more than 200 civilians dead. The United States had admitted its warplanes had killed 105 in the strike.
Meanwhile, Cap. Jabbar Hassan, from the Iraqi Federal Police service, told Anadolu Agency that forces managed on Friday to rescue more than 200 civilians who had been trapped inside five booby-trapped houses in Bab al-Beed neighborhood in the Old City. He said the rescue came after intense encounters with IS militants whom, he said, used the civilians as human shields.
Iraqi troops have advanced closer to the Old City’s Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque, where Islamic State’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the group’s rule in 2014. IS members blew up the mosque’s ancient minaret on Wednesday as troops advanced, a move which the Iraqi command said signalled an imminent defeat to the extremist group.
A few hundred militants are thought to remain inside the Old City, but are holding at least 100.000 civilians who are shot dead or caught and executed while trying to flee the neighborhood.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in statements on Thursday that Mosul would be declared Islamic State-free within a few days.