US launches airstrike on Mosul hospital used by Isis, military says

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

US launches airstrike on Mosul hospital used by Isis, military says

Central Command says ‘precision strike’ targeted building
from which Isis fighters had fired at Iraqi forces for more
than a day

Spencer Ackerman in New York
Wednesday 7 December 2016 23.22 GMT

The US military has deliberately conducted an airstrike on a hospital in the Iraqi city of Mosul, it said on Wednesday, after saying its Iraqi allies came under fire by Islamic State fighters from the hospital complex.

US Central Command (Centcom) said it launched a “precision strike” on a building within the al-Salem hospital complex from which Isis fighters had for more than a day launched “heavy” machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire on Iraqi forces.

The coalition did not say if any patients or civilians were present at the scene of the airstrike on the “building on the hospital complex” nor did it answer a question about any noncombatants being killed or wounded.

It is also unclear if the strike ended the described threat from Isis fighters at al-Salem hospital, on the east side of the besieged city. US and Iraqi fighters have for weeks battled to regain control of Mosul, Iraq’s second city, Isis’s last major redoubt in the country.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/07/islamic-state-iraq-mosul-hospital-airstrike-us-military

[David__77]

1. I don't know if international agreements always ban attacks against medical facilities.

I can imagine that it's quite challenging to conduct military operations in zones in which combatants are interspersed among non-combatants and near civilian infrastructure. I certainly hope that operations in Mosul conclude with minimal loss of life and destruction of property.