Smoke rises after an U.S. airstrike, while the Iraqi army pushes into Topzawa village during the operation against Islamic State militants near Bashiqa, near Mosul, Iraq October 24, 2016. © Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters
Over 60 civilians have been killed and 200 injured in last three days of US-led coalition airst rikes on residential areas in Mosul, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
“There were numerous attacks of the US-led coalition targeting residential areas, schools, and other civilian objects both in Mosul and in other parts of the Iraqi Nineveh Governorate,” Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of Operations in the Russian General Staff, told the media. “We are closely monitoring the situation around Mosul. So far we see no substantial progress in liberating this city from the terrorists of ISIS.”
The general added that a school for girls in southern Mosul was among the civilian objects hit by the US-led coalition’s airpower.
The International Committee of the Red Cross earlier warned that the Mosul offensive may force hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the city. This number will overstretch Iraq’s ability to shelter them.
Rudskoy also said that the Russian Aerospace Forces have not delivered air strikes inside and outside Aleppo since last Tuesday and intends to continue holding off the warplanes. However, this statement is in contrary to reports of various sources on the ground. For example, alleged Russian air strikes were reported in the southern countryside of Aleppo.
Clashes in Aleppo resumed on Sunday, after militants sabotaged the ceasefire and prevented civilians from fleeing the battered city.