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AN AIR STRIKE in a western Iraqi town near the Syrian border still controlled by the Islamic State group killed and wounded dozens of civilians on yesterday.
The deadly strike 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.
The speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Salim al-Juburi condemned the air strike “that targeted a market area for civilians and resulted in the death and injury of dozens of them” in the town of Al-Qaim.
If confirmed, 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.
The BBC reports that over 60 people were killed in the strike.
Officials in Anbar, the western province in which Al-Qaim is located, said dozens were killed in the afternoon strike, although AFP could not reach sources in the town to confirm the casualty toll.
A spokesman for the provincial council of Anbar claimed the strike was carried out by an Iraqi aircraft in the afternoon.
“The strike hit a market at peak hour, there were retirees queueing up to pick up their pension, people collecting salaries and social security payments,” Eid Ammash said.
Entire families were killed.
Another official blamed the strike on the US-led coalition that has carried out thousands of air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
There was no immediate comment from Iraq’s Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS and the coalition denied carrying out any strikes in the area at the time.
“We didn’t conduct strikes in the area at the time of the incident,” coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian told AFP.
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.
“Our forces dealt with the situation at Al-Salam hospital” in southeastern Mosul, Maan Saadi, a CTS commander, told AFP.
“Our mission was to offer support to the 9th Division forces surrounded in the hospital, our units accomplished this mission and opened a passage,” he said.
Saadi 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 five-storey building towers above the neighbourhood and the jihadists had been using the upper floors and roof as sniper positions for some time, Mosul residents said.
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.
CTS has spearheaded the drive into Mosul in the past month, retaking several neighbourhoods in the east of the city.
The army also punched into Mosul in November but its progress has been slower and Iraqi forces barely control half of the eastern side of the city.
Saadi said his forces had retaken two neighbourhoods in eastern Mosul and were aiming to flush out jihadists from two more in the coming days.
“We are now in Al-Taamim which is three kilometres (two miles) from the river, including an open area of about one kilometre where there are no buildings,” he said.
Water crisis
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.
One of the main factors hampering Iraqi forces in Mosul is the continued presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, who either want to stay in their homes or are prevented from leaving by IS.
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.
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.
“Partners are rushing to bring trauma care closer to the front lines to give injured civilians the best chance of survival,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
It said work was also under way to repair water and electricity infrastructure in east Mosul, where it described the current water shortage as “critical”.
The conditions for those massing in the camps on the city’s outskirts were hardly better, with the onset of winter bringing freezing temperatures at night.
- © AFP 2016.
Disappointing from TUI
I expect TUI to split now. IT lecturers were hammered with 2 extra lecturing hours, and voted overwhelmingly against the proposal. I suppose secondary school teachers voted for it, and that is how it was accepted. I will be leaving TUI, and I guess a lot of other lecturers will as well.
“Hammered with two extra lecturing hours” – what’s that total bring you to?
It isn’t so black and white. For a start only 57% of members voted. As a secondary school teacher I voted “no”, as did a lot of my colleagues. And that’s coming from someone who has a lot to benefit from the ‘yes’ vote, as I’m due my CID in September.
Pay parity is a massive problem for young teachers, and I don’t have a lot of faith in the government to stand by their “proposed” talks. For a start, the government have only promised that a yes vote will result in serious talks. They refuse to sign off on a solid deal without us agreeing to their terms first. To me, it’s blackmail. And along with my colleagues, we don’t like the feeling of being bullied the government.
To be honest, judging by our school and the amount of people who were converted to a no vote – we expected the No to win out. I’m disappointed by the result, but I’ll definitely be happy to get my CID.
18, and for new entrants 20. And if you think this is easy work, you are welcome to try.
Tadhg, leave TUI and join ASTI, there should really be only one secondary school teacher union.
The mix of lecturer and secondary teachers in TUI makes it fragmented with a split in its focus.
Eric, am I right saying that you can’t change Union during a dispute?
No I meant no disrespect. Some friends of mine who lecture are involved in a dispute themselves. They see themselves as teachers and just want to lecture but their institution are trying to get them to do more research. It seems like the skill sets are not necessarily easily matched and they feel there should be two roles. Interested on getting your own take on this though.
James, I have colleagues like that as well – it is not easy doing research on top of the 20 hours, and people give up. I don’t agree with the split between teachers and researchers. Research is supposed to inform your teaching and bring the students to the cutting edge in your area. ITs want to become more like universities, but with double the teaching load. At the end, it is the students who ate shortchanged.
I never heard of that, it may be true or not.
But TUI be accepting this vote are not in dispute.
I must admit this vote surprised me, I have a few friends in TUI schools and they claim new JC English is wishy washy with lots of extra paperwork.
TUI basically accept a 2% increase over 3 years. While the luas earned themselves 18.5% over the same period.
@Tadhg is correct about that, Eric.
I voted no as did a lot of my colleagues and we are second level. So disappointed with the result. Disappointed and shocked. This agreement does not deal with pay parity and I’m embarrassed that our Executive recommended a YES vote.
It’s interesting that one of the potential successors to the current president was suggesting we vote no.
James – the SEC control “consistency in exams” – Many of us have fought long and hard against the infamous bell curve. As regards the points system – that is entirely manufactured, controlled and manipulated by the third level institutions not the teaching profession.
Btw Im not sure how you can claim “educated but not trained to their jobs” ??!
Only in Ireland would teachers get such a good deal on holidays, special days, 70% attendance and best of all Snow days.
Ah forget it mindfulness for some reason the teaching unions get so much support on these forums. Educated but not trained to their jobs. No way of measuring performance. “Consistency in exams” over actual learning. Rote learning over understanding. Points systems over aptitude. Shall we go on?
Wow lads. Some seriously well informed comments there.
Bit more informative than yours Eoin. Anything in there you want to dispute. All fact you will find.
Don’t mind James and Mindful. No feeding the trolls. Bitter over their career choice, it seems.
Extremely happy with my career choice but it appears you still don’t want to actually dispute anything in my comment.
Well tell me, how am I not “trained to my job”? That is a ridiculous comment. Unless you are in fact a teacher or lecturer, you wouldn’t have a clue how well trained I am. But I am very sorry that you don’t get 3 months holidays a year.
I’m fully aware of the avenues you take to become a teacher. And secondary school teachers are left with classes without supervision, monitoring, performance reviews, or training. You are just educated. And no your teachings practice does not constitute training as two visits to monitor you does not count as coaching.
Tell me more about how successful teachers around the world are monitored? Because the US teachers are scored based on their students performance and their system is in a heap. South Korea (and Japan) has a good system, but all of their students do their learning in night school and spend their “day-school” sleeping in class. Counter productive, right?
You do know Irish teachers are subject to assessment, through subject or whole school inspections?
What industry do you work in? How are you assessed? Because in my three careers, I’ve never come across a fair method of assessment.
Ah lads save your ire for the luas drivers, who should have been fired long ago and deserve nothing.
I have no problem paying Guards, teachers and nurses more money. It’s a tough and important job. But it needs to be affordable for the country, can’t go back to the ridiculous pay claims that bankrupted us and led us to go cap in hand to the Germans and Brits for a bailout.
I’ll row in behind that Fred. Best of luck in all our jobs tomorrow lads! Good night.
James. Do you spent 4 to 5 hrs in the evening preparing you next day’s work? I do. Do you spend your holidays rewriting schemes of work and putting mid-term plans in place? Do you go home and worry about people under your care that you feel are slipping? I do. Do you carry the awful responsibilty of having to get police inolved when a child is not quite ready to take the step, and later agonize whether you have done the right thing or not? Or maybe James, you just go home and don’t worry about work much till the next day. But I understand. Very few people who have not done this job have the ability to think what it must be like to carry a generation’s future in your hands. I went to school in the 70s, and if your comments refer to teachers of that era (pot luck if you got a good one) then I can understand. Those days and those teachers are gone. I love my job, but all these holidays you speak of are a figment of your imagination. Maybe a glimse of the past. My work never ends, but I truly love it and really care about my kids. This, however, does not mean I will be a doormat for governmental policy.
Soz about typos. Fingers like shovels.
Ian i absolutely have similar responsibilities in my current role. But the point is this. You are in the minority clearly in how you effectively you plan and hold yourself up to be a role model for your kids. The facts are we are not using best practice to educate our kids. Our education system in direct conflict with the psychology on learning on development. This is not opinion it’s a fact.
Wow good to know you’ve been to every classroom in the country. Any facts or studies to back up how the majority of teachers are poor educators? Actually any way of backing up any of your huge generalisations? No education system is perfect. All of them constantly change, but to have a go at teachers who are trying to work under a broken system is ridiculous. Also anyone that finishes their point with ‘fact’ and has stated zero facts is deluded.
Wow I’m shocked. A union that has actually accepted common sense. Junior cert reforms next hopefully.
Lolz, someone please put James in front of a room full of 30 teenagers for one hour and we’ll see if he still feels the same about teachers.
Why aren’t they campaigning to increase the number of men in the profession?
Oh wait, that only works one way.
No support for them !!
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