About 20 killed, including civilians, in air strikes on Iraq's Mosul: witnesses

BAGHDAD About 20 people, including at least 12 civilians, were killed on Monday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, in two air strikes that destroyed houses believed to be used by Islamic State militants, six eyewitnesses and a medical source said.

Nearby buildings were also damaged, they said.

The two strikes happened within a 10-minute gap at about 3 p.m. local time (7.00 a.m. ET), targeting the houses of a local Islamic State commander and his son in the July 17 district of western Mosul, said the witnesses, contacted from Baghdad.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Islamic State captured Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in 2014.  The United States and its allies have been carrying out air strikes against Islamist militants in Iraq since August 2014.

(Reporting by the Baghdad bureau; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)