TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - 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. At least 25 were wounded, the two officials added.
AP footage showed rescue teams in orange jumpsuits and blue helmets searching through the rubble. At least one victim was seen wrapped in a blanket and rushed to an ambulance.
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.
Also Monday, separate attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least seven people.
A booby-trapped house exploded in Baghdad's southern suburb of Arab Jabour, killing three members of security forces and wounding nine, a police officer said.
In another attack, two soldiers were killed and five hurt when mortar rounds hit their base in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, the officer said. A bomb at a market in the western Ghazaliyah neighborhood killed two civilians and wounded six.
Medical officials confirmed casualty figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
AP
