Coalition airstrike kills 13 Daesh militants near Mosul

By Ahmed Qasim

NINEVEH, Iraq (AA) – At least 13 Daesh militants were killed by an airstrike carried out by U.S.-led coalition aircraft south of Mosul, according to a security source in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the regional capital.

"Thirteen terrorists were killed in a coalition airstrike that targeted a Daesh concentration in the Hamam al-Alil district south of Mosul," Captain Fahd al-Laithi of Iraq’s National Information Agency told Anadolu Agency by phone.

Meanwhile, he added, Iraqi forces had managed to retake the village of Wadi al-Qasab in the Al-Shura district and the village of Al-Hamza in Hamam al-Alil, both of which lay to the south of the Daesh-held city.

Last week, the Iraqi army, backed by a U.S.-led air coalition, launched a wide-ranging operation aimed at retaking Mosul, Daesh’s last stronghold in northern Iraq.

Daesh captured Mosul -- Iraq’s second largest city -- in mid-2014 before overrunning additional territory in the country’s northern and western regions.

While the Iraqi army and its local allies have since recovered much territory, the terrorist group remains in control of Mosul and several parts of the western Anbar province.