United States-backed airstrikes launched Friday took out an Islamic State group headquarters located in a hospital in western Mosul, U.S. military officials said Saturday.
In a statement released Saturday, the U.S. task force in Iraq and Syria said IS militants had been using a building located within the Al Jumhuri medical complex in Mosul for the sole purpose of overseeing its operations in Iraq.
“ISIS continues to ignore the Law of Armed Conflict and uses protected sites such as hospitals, schools, and mosques to try and shield themselves from Coalition airstrikes,” the statement read using another acronym for Islamic State.
The statement said coalition forces abide by international laws regarding armed conflict and work to execute airstrikes with minimal effects on civilians.
The Mosul airstrike was one of 20 strikes launched by the coalition against IS militants in Syria and Iraq on Friday. Coalition forces launched three strikes near Mosul, destroying construction equipment and watercraft, and damaging 11 supply routes.
Another IS headquarters was destroyed near Al Humayjah, and an IS-held building near Kirkuk also was destroyed in the flurry of strikes.
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