The US-led coalition on Sunday denied carrying out an air strike that killed 15 women at a Shiite place of worship in northern Iraq this week. Russia pointed an accusatory finger at the coalition a day after Friday’s incident, in which local officials said women at a shrine in the town of Daquq were killed by an air strike. The coalition “has determined definitively that we did not conduct the airstrike w/reported civilian casualties in Daquq,” spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said on social media. If the coalition did not carry it out, the other aircraft most likely to have operated in the area are from the Iraqi air force or army aviation. Turkish jets have also routinely conducted air strikes in Iraq but they usually target Kurdish rebel positions in areas far removed from Daquq.

Source: Hindustan Times October 23, 2016 14:34 UTC