Iraqi minister, US envoy review coalition operations in Mosul, Anbar

Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid al-Ubaydi had talks late Wednesday with US Ambassador in Baghdad Stuart E. Jones on stepping up international coalition efforts to back the Iraqi armed forces to finalize preparations for massive liberation operations in Anbar and Mosul.

Ubaydi also held meeting on Wednesday Jamal Ja'far - a leading figure in al Hashad al Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces, on means of coordinating efforts between the Iraqi Armed Forces and the Popular Mobilization Forces - which is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization composed of some 40, almost exclusively Shiite, militias - to flush Daesh out of the country.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been experiencing horrific violence since Daesh terrorists launched operations across the country in June 2014.

Meanwhile, Ubaydi attended the funeral service of those killed when an Iraqi fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb on a Baghdad residential neighborhood on Monday.

According to the Wall Street Journal, five people were killed in the accident.

The Russian-made Sukhoi jet was returning from a mission against Islamic State targets in western Iraq at the time, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said. The bomb, which had failed to release from the aircraft earlier in the flight, detached as it flew over the neighborhood, he said.

The pilot attempted to drop the bomb six times during the mission, the Ministry of Defense said. When the plane’s fuel supply ran low, he was ordered to return to Baghdad’s Al Salam Air Base.

State media broadcast images of hundreds of civilians crowded around collapsed concrete buildings and climbing shattered walls in a search for victims.

The government convened a committee to investigate, Brig. Gen. Maan said, adding that the pilot was among the country’s most qualified.

Monday’s accident comes a few months after a friendly-fire bombing in March, in which Iraq’s military accidentally shelled a house in Beiji, a city north of Baghdad, killing six civilians from one family.