ARA News

Erbil, Kurdistan Region – The U.S.-led coalition’s warplanes bombed a plant for explosive devises belonging to the Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) in Hawija district west of Kirkuk, causing the death of dozens of civilians, Iraqi medical sources reported on Wednesday.

The targeted IS-held plant was located in a residential neighborhood in Hawija, which caused the death of at least 70 people, mostly civilians. 

The victims were moved to the hospital of Mosul, which a large number of wounded in critical conditions. 

Medical sources in Mosul told ARA News that the city’s hospitals received about a hundred people dead and wounded, including women and children after an air strike carried out by the coalition’s warplanes on an IS-run explosives plant.

“Also a weapons depot was hit inside a residential neighborhood in central Hawija west of Kirkuk, while more than 70 corpses were found under the rubble mostly belong to civilians,” the source added.

Speaking to ARA News in Hawija, media activist Osama Nazzal reported that the Islamic State militants are hiding among civilians utilizing them as human shields, “and this may lead many to say that the shelling is a crime against humanity, while forgetting those (IS militants) who hide among innocent and defenseless people”.

He added that what happened in Hawija is one of the biggest crimes committed by ISIS against the residents, who confirmed that dozens of houses in Hawija were flattened by the recent strikes. 

“IS uses civilians as human shields to claim that the U.S.-led coalition is targeting innocent people during the strikes,” Nazzal told ARA News.

Reporting by: Sarbaz Yousef

Source: ARA News