The channel's correspondent said the bombing targeted an area between Mosul and Dohuk province, northeast of the city, where Iraqi army forces are believed to be massed.

Al-Jazeera said Mosul itself was not hit by the bombing, but it showed images of what it described as coalition B-52s flying over the city.

It added that 21 Iraqi civilians were killed and 75 wounded in US-British bombing of the Bartalah region, east of Mosul, without saying when it took place.

Mosul is a majority-Arab city of 1.5 million in a mostly Kurdish area.

SPACE.WIRE