Civilian deaths in Iraq under review

BAGHDAD — The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group is investigating reports of an air strike in the city of Mosul that allegedly killed more than 100 civilians, according to a statement given to the Associated Press on Friday.

The suspected high toll underscores the difficulties that Iraqi troops face in the weeks-long fight to route the Sunni militant Islamic State group from the densely urban part of the city, Iraq’s second-largest.

Residents of the neighborhood known as Mosul Jidideh told an Associated Press team at the scene that scores of residents are believed to have been killed by a pair of air strikes that hit a cluster of homes in the area earlier this month.

The coalition has “opened a formal civilian casualty credibility assessment on this allegation,” the statement continued, adding that coalition planes “routinely strike” Islamic State targets in this area and that coalition forces “take all reasonable precautions during the planning and execution of air strikes to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.”