Iraqi forces kill 200 ISIS's militants in airstrikes west of Nineveh

The Belgian Federal Prosecution opened preliminary investigation into two incidents linked to air strikes of the Belgian army during the battle to restore the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS organization, which resulted in the deaths of civilians.

"We have received information from the Ministry of Defense regarding two alleged incidents, so we have opened a preliminary investigation in these incidents," the spokesman for the federal prosecutor Eric van der Seibt told AFP.

"If the rules of engagement were followed and civilian casualties have fallen, then perhaps there is no any offense punishable by law," he added.
The Belgian MP Wouter de Friend said that the two incidents were related to bombardments by F-16 jets in Mosul on 17 March. Belgium is participating with six F-16 aircraft in the international coalition against ISIS organization.

Iraqi officials have spoken of the killing of dozens of civilians in the western side of Mosul after air strikes against ISIS's militants.
Nineveh provincial governor Nawfal Hammadi said that more than 130 civilians were killed in strikes over several days in Mosul's al-Jadida area, and attention has focused on one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17. The International Coalition confirmed that it had bombed a position west of Mosul, at the site where civilian casualties were reported.

A spokesman for the French General Staff said Thursday that French fighter jets launched raids on the Iraqi city of Mosul on March 17, but did not target the area where a large number of civilians were killed. This comes at a time when Canada extended its participation in the international coalition against the organization "Daash" in Iraq and Syria for only three months, according to Canadian Defense Minister Hargit Sagan.
 
Sagan said in a press statement that the objectives of the operation will remain as it is over the next three months, and is to provide advice and assistance to Iraqi forces, indicating that the Canadian soldiers will remain behind the front line. Since the deployment of its armed forces (Canada) in Iraq at the end of the summer of 2014 as part of the US-led coalition forces, Canada has twice extended its mission, which later included Syria and ended today.

US-led coalition forces have launched 18 raids on sites of ISIS in Iraq and Syria in the past 24 hours.
 
"According to information from the Directorate General of Intelligence and Security, the Iraqi Air Force carried out several air strikes, which resulted in the destruction of three dens and gatherings of extremist elements and the killing of some 150 to 200 extremists who entered from Syria to al-Ba'aj district, southwest of Tal Afar." the Iraqi military said in a statement.

In Diyala, a security source in the province said that a security force of intelligence managed to control four Katyusha rockets in a pre-emptive operation in a village in the district of Khalis north of Diyala. He added that another security forces managed to dismantle a bomb detonated explosive device placed on the side of a road in the area of ​​Imam Wes (northeast of Baquba).

In Kirkuk, a local source said that seven civilians, including women and children, died in the district of Hawija, because of lack of medicines, noting that the majority of them are senior in age and chronically ill.