IRAQI fighter jet accidentally drops bomb over Baghdad, kills 12 people
Baghdad : An Iraqi Russian-made fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb over a Baghdad neighborhood on Monday, killing at least 12 people on the ground, Iraqi officials said.
The plane one of several Sukhois used by Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State group was returning to base when the accident happened.
Military spokesman, Brig Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim, told The Associated Press that a technical failure caused the Sukhoi jet to malfunction and drop the bomb, which hit a number of houses in the Iraqi capital’s eastern neighborhood of New Baghdad.
Three children and two women were among the 12 killed, a police officer at the scene and a medical official at a nearby hospital said. At least 25 others were wounded, the two officials added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
AP footage from the scene shows rescue teams in orange jumpsuits and blue helmets searching through the rubble for victims. At least one victim was seen wrapped with a blanket and being rushed to an ambulance.
Iraq is going through its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops with the Islamic State group in control of large swaths of the country’s territory in the north and the west following a blitz last year when the Sunni militants captured Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and the majority of the western Anbar province.
Kurdish Peshmerga retake Iraqi village
Kurdish Peshmerga forces recaptured a village from the Islamic State (IS) south of of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk early on Monday, broadcaster Rudaw reported, citing police.
Peshmerga fighters attacked IS positions in Mura Gawra overnight, retaking the village and killing 14 militants, Rudaw quoted Kirkuk’s chief of police Sarhad Qadir as saying.
Peshmerga forces also wrested back control of the surrounding areas and repelled a counter-attack by a group of IS militants, Qadir said.
The Peshmerga took control of Kirkuk last summer shortly after the IS captured Mosul from the Iraqi army on June 10 last year.
