Iraqi warplane ‘accidentally’ bombs Baghdad
In a statement, Iraqi security spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan confirmed the accident.
‘One of the bombs became stuck because of a technical problem, and during its (the aircraft’s) return to base it fell on three houses in Baghdad Jadida,’ he said.
The incident came as Sunni extremists targeting Baghdad’s Shiite neighbourhoods killed 15 people in and around the Iraqi capital.
Police officials say a bomb exploded near a cafe in al-Obeidi district on the eastern edge of Baghdad last night, killing four people and wounding 14 others.
Another evening bomb blast near a small restaurant killed four people and wounded 11 others in the southeastern suburb of Jisr Diyala.
Earlier, a bomb went off at a bus stop in the northeastern suburbs of the capital, killing four people and wounding nine.
Another bombing near a bus stop killed three people in Baghdad’s northwestern district of Shulla.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters.
On Saturday evening, U.S.-led coalition aircraft unleashed a wave of airstrikes targeting the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in eastern Syria in what the coalition said was one of its most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date.
ISIS said at least 10 people were killed and many others wounded in the attacks which activists said triggered successive explosions that shook the city and created panic among residents.
The U.S.-led coalition often targets ISIS-held towns and cities in Syria, but the overnight strikes on Raqqa were rare in their intensity.
In a statement, the coalition said it carried out 18 airstrikes throughout Raqqa province, destroying a number of IS vehicles and 16 bridges.
An earlier statement said the attacks also destroyed vital ISIS-controlled structures and transit routes in Syria.
‘The significant airstrikes tonight were executed to deny Daesh the ability to move military capabilities throughout Syria and into Iraq,’ said coalition spokesman Lt. Col.
Thomas Gilleran, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
‘This was one of the largest deliberate engagements we have conducted to date in Syria, and it will have debilitating effects on Daesh’s ability to move’ from Raqqa, he said.
Raqqa is the de facto capital of the so-called Islamic caliphate declared a year ago by the ISIS in territories it controls in Iraq and Syria.
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