Dozens killed and wounded in west Iraq air strike: speaker

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Baghdad, Dec 7, 2016 (AFP) -An air strike in the jihadist-held western Iraqi town of Al-Qaim, near the Syrian border, killed and wounded dozens of civilians Wednesday, the parliament speaker said.
Speaker Salim al-Juburi condemned in a statement the air strike “that targeted a market area for civilians and resulted in the death and injury of dozens of them.”
He said he “holds the government responsible for such mistakes” and demanded the immediate launch of an investigation into the alleged strike.
If confirmed, the blunder would be one of the worst cases of civilians being killed in strikes in Iraq since the start of the air campaign against the Islamic State group in 2014.
Officials in Anbar, the western province in which Al-Qaim is located, said dozens were killed in the afternoon strike, although AFP could not reach sources in the town to confirm the casualty toll.
A spokesman for the provincial council of Anbar claimed the strike was carried out by an Iraqi aircraft in the afternoon and demanded a government probe.
“The strike hit a market at peak hour, there were retirees queueing up pick up their pension, people collecting salaries and social security payments,” Eid Ammash said.
“Entire families were killed,” Ammash said.
Maath al-Jughaifi, a tribal leader in Haditha, the nearest city, said “between 70 people and 80 people were killed” in Al-Qaim but claimed the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition that has carried out thousands of strikes against IS.
There was no immediate comment from Iraq’s Joint Operations Command supervising the fight against IS or from the US-led coalition.
Amaq, an IS-affiliated propaganda website, released a video purporting to show the aftermath of the strike and claimed 120 people were killed.
AFP could not authenticate the footage, which showed devastation in a market area and a large number of dead and wounded strewn across the street or being treated.
Al-Qaim lies a few kilometres from the border with Syria, around 320 kilometres (200 miles) west of the capital Baghdad, and is the last major town in Anbar still under IS control.

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