US coalition reviewing airstrike on Iraqi hospital

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday it is reviewing an airstrike it carried out on a hospital in Iraq.

The Wednesday night airstrike on the Al Salam hospital in southeast Mosul was requested by Iraqi security after it came under attack from Daesh fighters in the facility, coalition spokesman Air Force Col. John Dorrian told reporters.

"We don't take lightly any decision to strike a target that would normally be a protected facility," he said.

The coalition has "not seen any indications at this point that civilians were harmed in the strike", Dorrian added, but conceded it is "very difficult to ascertain with full and total fidelity" whether civilians were killed in the strike.

The coalition's review, however, stops short of a full-fledged investigation and is rather an assessment of events.

Iraqi forces are currently locked in a heated battle with Daesh to secure Mosul, which the terror group has held since June 2014.