Dozens killed, buried in rubble after Mosul air raid

Dozens of residents were buried in collapsed buildings in the Iraqi city of Mosul after an air strike against ISIS triggered a massive explosion last week and rescuers are still recovering bodies, civil defence agency officials and locals said on Thursday.


The exact cause of the collapses was not clear, but a local lawmaker and two local residents said air strikes by the US-led coalition targeting ISIS militants may have detonated a truck filled with explosives, destroying buildings in a heavily populated area.

Civil Defence chief Brigadier Mohammed Al-Jawari told local reporters that rescue teams were retrieving bodies from under the debris in the Mosul Jadida district near Rahma hospital, the site of heavy fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS.

Reports of numbers of civilian casualties varied greatly after last Friday’s air raid. But Jawari was quoted by al-Mosuliliya channel in a statement saying teams had so far recovered 40 bodies from buildings that collapsed.
  [alarabiya.net/Reuters]
23/3/17