Coalition destroys ISIS headquarters in west Mosul hospital
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The global anti-ISIS coalition has destroyed a major ISIS administration facility housed in a medical building in west Mosul on Friday, stating that the building was no longer being used for civilian purposes.
The five-storey building was being used as an “ISIS command and control headquarters and propaganda facility,” reads a statement released by the coalition on Saturday.
The Bab Sinjar facility “was located in the Al Jumhuri medical community complex,” the statement detailed.
The coalition stated that they had confirmed the building was being used as a military command only and “civilians were no longer accessing the site” before conducting the airstrike. The statement said the airstrike was carried out with the approval of the Iraqi government.
ISIS regularly uses protected sites such as hospitals, schools, and religious centres in attempts to shield themselves from airstrikes.
In October, the Mosul Eye told Rudaw English that ISIS was holding Yezidi women and girls captive in the city’s hospitals, including al-Jumhuri. The historian and blogger from Mosul also reported that doctors in the hospital were being held hostage under threat of execution.
Coalition airstrikes have hit on or near hospitals on at least two occasions in east Mosul.
A coalition airstrike on an ISIS vehicle on December 29 may have resulted in “possible civilian casualties,” the coalition announced at the time, stating that they determined after the strike that the vehicle was in the parking lot of a hospital compound when it was hit by the airstrike. It is believed the hospital was the Ibn al-Athir maternity and children’s hospital.
Earlier in the month, the coalition bombed ISIS militants in al-Salam hospital, again possibly causing civilian casualties.
The five-storey building was being used as an “ISIS command and control headquarters and propaganda facility,” reads a statement released by the coalition on Saturday.
The Bab Sinjar facility “was located in the Al Jumhuri medical community complex,” the statement detailed.
The coalition stated that they had confirmed the building was being used as a military command only and “civilians were no longer accessing the site” before conducting the airstrike. The statement said the airstrike was carried out with the approval of the Iraqi government.
ISIS regularly uses protected sites such as hospitals, schools, and religious centres in attempts to shield themselves from airstrikes.
In October, the Mosul Eye told Rudaw English that ISIS was holding Yezidi women and girls captive in the city’s hospitals, including al-Jumhuri. The historian and blogger from Mosul also reported that doctors in the hospital were being held hostage under threat of execution.
Coalition airstrikes have hit on or near hospitals on at least two occasions in east Mosul.
A coalition airstrike on an ISIS vehicle on December 29 may have resulted in “possible civilian casualties,” the coalition announced at the time, stating that they determined after the strike that the vehicle was in the parking lot of a hospital compound when it was hit by the airstrike. It is believed the hospital was the Ibn al-Athir maternity and children’s hospital.
Earlier in the month, the coalition bombed ISIS militants in al-Salam hospital, again possibly causing civilian casualties.