Baghdad: The US-led military coalition on Saturday said its forces destroyed a building in the main medical complex of western Mosul, suspected to house a Daesh command centre.
The militant group disputed the assertion, saying in an online statement that Friday’s strike killed 18 people, mostly women and children, and wounded 47.
Independent media have no access to western Mosul or other areas under Daesh control in Iraq and Syria.
The militants are essentially under siege in western Mosul, along with an estimated 650,000 civilians, after US-backed forces surrounding the city dislodged them from the east in the first phase of an offensive that concluded last month.
The coalition accused Daesh of using the five-storey building as a military command and control facility.
“The coalition was able to determine through intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance efforts that Daesh did not use the building for any medical purposes and that civilians were no longer accessing the site,” a coalition statement said.
The strike followed reports that the militants are dug in among civilians on the western side of Mosul and storing weapons in hospitals, schools, mosques and churches as a tactic to avoid targeting.
The offensive to dislodge Daesh from Mosul, its last major city stronghold in Iraq, started in October.
