Air strike on Iraq market kills dozens

An air strike in a western Iraqi town near the Syrian border still controlled by the Islamic State group has killed and wounded dozens of civilians, officials said.

The deadly strike on Wednesday came as Iraqi forces battled jihadists deep inside Mosul, edging closer to the River Tigris that divides the city and looking for a breakthrough in the seven-week-old offensive.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command yesterday said that Iraqi aircraft struck dozens of mostly foreign fighters from the Islamic State group in Al-Qaim area the previous day.

It described allegations by officials that dozens of civilians were killed as IS propaganda.

The speaker of Iraq's parliament, Salim al-Juburi condemned the air strike.

Anbar lawmaker Ahmed al-Salmani said 55 civilians were killed. Another lawmaker, Mohammed Karbouli, told Reuters that 60 people had been killed, including some of his relatives.

The blunder would be one of the worst cases of civilians being killed in strikes in Iraq since the start of the air campaign against IS in 2014.

A spokesman for the provincial council of Anbar said the air strike hit a market in the afternoon.

"The strike hit a market at peak hour, there were retirees queueing up pick up their pension, people collecting salaries and social security payments," Eid Ammash said.

"Entire families were killed," he said.

Army pinned back in Mosul

Meanwhile in east Mosul, the 9th Armoured Division had reached Al-Salam hospital in a push on Tuesday, the farthest the army had penetrated into the city since the start of a broad offensive launched on October 17.

But it quickly found itself surrounded by jihadists and needed support from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service to pull back, commanders said.

A CTS commander said the army was now occupying a position nearly one kilometre (less than a mile) from the hospital, which a 9th Division commander said had been used by IS as a command centre.

The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the jihadists had carried out five suicide car bomb attacks in the area inflicted heavy losses on the army.

Forces on the southern and northern fronts made quick early gains when Iraq launched its largest military operation in years but progress has been slow in recent days due to fierce IS resistance and fear of civilian casualties.

It its latest situation report, the UN spoke of spiralling civilian casualties as Iraqi forces went house to house in east Mosul, attempting to battle jihadists and protect civilians at the same time.

The United Nations on Wednesday put the overall number of people displaced by the offensive at more than 82,000, less than half the number the UN expected before the offensive.