PHOTO: Residents inspect damage from Iraqi airstrike on Mosul, June 28, 2014
LATEST: Parliament Postpone Tuesday’s Session to Choose Prime Minister, President, & Speaker
Residents of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, said on Sunday that warplanes carried out at least three airstrikes; however, the Iraqi Government denied attacking the insurgent-held city and the US said it had no knowledge of bombing.
The strikes followed the purported first appearance of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, in a mosque in Mosul on Friday.
At least one of the strikes on Sunday hit homes in the village of Rashidiya, on Mosul’s northern outskirts.
“There were four houses destroyed. Two families were killed,” said a 75-year-old retired military officer who lives in the area.
A local medical official said at least seven people were killed in the strikes and 30 were wounded.
An official in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office said he had no information of any airstrikes. The US Defense Department said it was unaware of the attacks and assured that American forces were not involved.
However, Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni MP who has served on the Security and Defense committee, confirmed the destruction of homes in Rashidiya and the neighborhood of Tamooz.
A pro-Government website claims dozens of Islamic State fighters were killed in an airstrike on a Presidential Palace compound in north Mosul.
The former pilot said he an American-made C-130 military transport plane that could belong to the Iraqi Air Force. Others, including MP Mutlaq, blamed Iran.
Parliament Postpone Tuesday’s Session to Choose Prime Minister, President, & Speaker
Parliament has failed for a second time to begin the process of political resolution in the face of the insurgent offensive, postponing Tuesday’s session to choose the Speaker, President, and Prime Minister.
The legislators, elected on April 30, initially met last Tuesday. After an acrimonious 30-minute session, a walkout by Sunni and Kurdish MPs meant that there was no longer a quorum.
Officials said tomorrow’s session was postponed because lack of agreement on candidates for the post of Speaker, held by a Sunni.
An MP said the session would be held on Saturday, although another official said no date had been set.
Iraqi General Killed by Insurgent Shelling
The commander of the Iraqi Army’s 6th Division was killed by insurgent shelling on Monday.
Major General Najm Abdullah Sudan “was killed by hostile shelling in Ibrahim bin Ali”, west of Baghdad, military spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta said.
Ibrahim bin Ali is in the Abu Ghraib area, where security forces have been fighting insurgents who took control of the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi at the start of the year.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Denies Tehran Sent Fighter Jets to Iraq
In an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam TV, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian dismissed reports that Tehran sent Russian-made SU-25 Sukhoi fighter jets to Iraq.
Russia has confirmed that it despatched 12 SU-25s last month in response to a request by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki; however, Western media have claimed that Iranians have supplied and flown the jets.
An Iranian pilot was killed in Iraq last week, although it is not clear if he died in flight or on the ground.
Amir-Abdollahian pointed to the Russian-supplied warplanes but insisted, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has not sent any weapons or fighter jets to Iraq.”
The Deputy Foreign Minister also repeated Tehran’s denial that General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards, has been in Baghdad advising Iraqi officials and inspecting frontlines: “The claims regarding the presence of General Soleimani in Iraq are not confirmed by us and we reject the report.”
Amir Abdollahian said Iranian advice on fighting terrorism was being given through diplomatic channels.
(Cross-posted from Iran Daily)