(The Daily Star)- The U.S.-led coalition Sunday denied carrying out an airstrike that killed 15 women at a Shiite place of worship in northern Iraq this week.
Russia pointed an accusatory finger at the coalition a day after Friday's incident, in which local officials said women at a shrine in the town of Daquq were killed by an airstrike.
The coalition "has determined definitively that we did not conduct the airstrike w/reported civilian casualties in Daquq," spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said on social media.
The local council chief and medics in Daquq, which lies south of Kirkuk and about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Baghdad, said the deadly incident was caused by an air raid.
If the coalition did not carry it out, the other aircraft most likely to have operated in the area are from the Iraqi air force or army aviation.
Neither have commented on the incident yet.
Turkish jets have also routinely conducted airstrikes in Iraq but they usually target Kurdish rebel positions in areas far removed from Daquq.
Recent incidents and discoveries in workshops used by ISIS suggest the extremists have been trying to develop weaponised drones.
The Conflict Armament Research group said it had documented earlier this year a drone manufactured by ISIS forces and used in the Daquq area but described it as "too light to carry explosives or other weapons".
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