Iraqi forces shelled Daesh positions outside Mosul on Monday as fighting to retake the extremist-held city entered its second week and a rights group urged a probe into a suspected air strike that hit a mosque, killing over a dozen civilians. The purported airstrike in northern Iraq struck the women's section of a mosque on Friday in the town of Daquq amid a large Daesh assault on the nearby city of Kirkuk. That assault was meant to distract the Iraqi forces and their allies from the massive operation around Mosul, the country's second largest city. Human Rights Watch said Daquq's residents believe the attack was an air strike because of the extent of the destruction and because planes could be heard flying overhead. The New York-based watchdog said at least 13 people were reported killed. Col. John Dorrian, a US military spokesman, said the coalition had "definitively determined" that it did not conduct the air strike that killed civilians in Daquq, and had shared its findings with the Iraqi government, which is carrying out its own investigation. "The Coalition uses precision munitions and an exhaustive process to reduce the possibility of civilian casualties and collateral damage because the preservation of civilian life is (of) paramount importance to us," Dorrian said. Iraqi Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, confirmed the Iraqi government was investigating the attack. He declined to say whether Iraqi or coalition planes were flying in the area at the time of the explosion. The strike in Daquq, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kirkuk, took place as dozens of Daesh militants attacked several government and security compounds in and around the city of Kirkuk, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Mosul. The assault lasted for two days and killed at least 80 people, mainly security forces. Daesh launched a similar attack on the western Iraqi town of Rutba, hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from Mosul, on Sunday. Rasool said the situation there "is completely under control," and Daesh militants have no presence inside the town. Dorrian, the coalition spokesman, said "Iraqi forces continue to attack the enemy with coalition air support" in Rutba and that "operations are ongoing." He says coalition airstrikes have destroyed five Daesh vehicles and killed a "significant" number of militants in the town, which is some The Daesh-run Aamaq news agency posted a video online that it said showed fighters attacking a military position on Sunday north of Rutba. Over the past week, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have been battling Daesh in a belt of mostly uninhabited towns and villages to the north, east and south of Mosul, pushing to within 9 kilometers (5 miles) of the city. On Monday, Iraqi special forces began shelling Daesh positions before dawn near the town of Bartella, said Maj. Gen. Haider Al-Obeidi. Bartella, a historically Christian town 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the east of Mosul, was retaken by Iraqi special forces last week. Shortly afterward, a convoy of special forces advanced toward the village of Tob Zawa, encountering roadside bombs and trading heavy fire with the militants. Loudspeakers on the Humvees blared Iraqi patriotic music as they pushed toward the village. The campaign to retake Mosul comes after months of planning and involves more than 25,000 Iraqi troops, Kurdish forces, Sunni tribal fighters and state-sanctioned Shiite militias. It is expected to take weeks, if not months, to drive Daesh out of Iraq's second largest city, which is still home to more than a million people. — Agencies
