US air force craft
© UnknownU.S. Air Force photo
90 Iraqi military servicemen were killed and 100 wounded as result of a US airstrike in Mosul, the Iraqi Factiniraq news portal reported.

The airstrike that had been likely made by mistake on Friday allegedly destroyed eight infantry fighting vehicles and four Humvee military light trucks belonging to Iraqi security forces (ISF) and pushed ISF to retreat from the recently liberated areas of the ISIS stronghold.

This was not the first time when the US-led coalition's air power successfully assisted ISIS terrorists to defend their positions in Mosul.

On December 5, the coalition's air force bombed the so-called "Golden Division" of the Iraqi army near the Mashfa al-Salam hospital that Iraqi fighters had seized from ISIS. As result of airstrikes and ISIS counter-attacks ISF lost up to 200 fighters and was pushed to retreat.


Comment: IRAQI SPECIAL FORCES SUFFER HEAVY DEFEAT IN SOUTHEASTERN MOSUL
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On December 5, the Special Forces of anti-terrorist units and the so-called Golden Division began to move along the road, leading from Mosul to Kirkuk, through the neighborhoods of Mithaq and Wahda in the direction of the city center. On December 6, Iraqi troops made a breakthrough and dislodged terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group from the Mashfa al-Salam hospital; however, militants did not allow Iraqi soldiers to consolidate their positions there.

In the afternoon, at least five suicide bombers of the IS group attacked positions of the Iraqi Special Forces, using bomb-laden vehicles. According to government sources, one of them did not reach his target, while others blew up very close to the Iraqi positions. According to the IS, all the bomb-laden vehicles reached positions of the Iraqi Army.

Immediately after the first explosion, a hard battle for the hospital erupted. Iraqi military called on the US-led coalition to provide air support, but fighter jets of the coalition mistakenly bombed buildings of the hospital, where Iraqi troops still were stationed. All in all, two series of airstrikes were carried out.

As a result of the attacks of the IS suicide bombers and 'friendly airstrikes' of the coalition's air power, the Iraqi Army suffered heavy losses, which were called 'catastrophic' by local accounts in social networks. According to various sources, from 90 to 200 Iraqi servicemen were killed, while more than 100 others were wounded. Several soldiers, who survived after the airstrikes on the hospital, were captured by terrorists. Up to 10 pieces of military hardware, mainly infantry combat vehicles and the Humvee vehicles, were destroyed by explosions. In fact, an assault team of the Iraqi Army, which broke through to the Mashfa al-Salam hospital, was liquidated during several hours. Its remnants were sent to Intisar neighborhood.

Both incidents were likely a result of excuse-less mistakes by US-led coalition pilots that were made because of a lack of practice during their deployment at the operational theatre. This fact is not news for experts. Even official numbers provided by Pentagon show that combat aircraft of the US-led coalition (180 warplanes!) make only about 20 combat sorties per day.