Iraqi fighter jet accidentally bombs Baghdad, 12 killed

An Iraqi fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb on a Baghdad neighborhood Monday, killing at least 12 people on the ground, Iraqi officials said. The plane — one of several Russian-made Sukhois used by Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State group — was returning to base at the time. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim told The Associated Press a technical failure caused the jet to drop the bomb, which hit houses in the Iraqi capital’s eastern neighborhood of New Baghdad. Three children and two women were among the dead, a police officer at the scene and a medical official at a nearby hospital said.

God knows the extent of the events happening in combat zones.

Ali Jassem, a 27-year-old interior ministry employee

Iraq received Sukhoi Su-25 jets from Russia and Iran last year as it sought to bolster its fledgling air force to combat IS, which overran large parts of the country. The Su-25s are robust aircraft designed for ground attack missions, but Iraq’s Sukhoi fleet is made up of ageing planes that have seen heavy use as Baghdad’s forces battle to push the jihadists back. Iraq is going through its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Islamic State group controls large swaths of the country’s north and west after capturing Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and the majority of the western Anbar province last year.

Middle East Baghdad