- Title: Injured rushed to Erbil hospital after IS mortar strike in Mosul
- Date: 1st January 2017
- Summary: ERBIL, IRAQ (JANUARY 1, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF A HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM WHERE VICTIMS OF ISLAMIC STATE MORTARS ARE RECEIVING TREATMENT
- Embargoed: 16th January 2017 17:21
- Keywords: Erbil hospital Mosul air strike residents casulty Islamic State
- Location: ERBIL, IRAQ
- City: ERBIL, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA0015X90LZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Several people were killed and dozens were injured in a Mosul neighbourhood on Sunday (January 1) after Islamic State mortars fell in a residential area.
The number of victims of the attack could not be immediately confirmed.
Some of those injured in the attack were rushed to a hospital in Erbil, more than an hour away from the site of the attack.
Relatives waited anxiously as their loved ones received treatments for their injuries.
"I am a street vendor, I sell cigarettes. At 9 am, my son and some kids from the neighbourhood went out to play, when suddenly a mortar fell on them. Two of his friends were killed, they were children and they are gone. One of them was an only child. My son was injured along with his friends. We were taken [to a hospital] in eastern Erbil, his friends are in the western side," said Qutaiba Zuhair.
The U.S.-backed assault on Mosul, the jihadists' last major stronghold in Iraq, was launched by a 100,000-strong alliance of local forces on Oct. 17. It has become the biggest military operation in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The second phase of the campaign launched on Thursday (December 29) following weeks of deadlock has pushed Islamic State out of several more areas despite fierce resistance.
The authorities do not release figures for civilian or military casualties, but medical officials say dozens of people are wounded each day in the battle for Mosul. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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