By Mohamed Walid

NINEVEH,  (AA): Twelve civilians were killed and dozens injured in a suicide bombing Saturday in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, an army officer said.

Major Abdul-Basit al-Jazaeri of the anti-terrorism forces said Daesh militants had detonated an explosives-laden tanker in al-Qadesiya al-Thaneya district in eastern Mosul.

“Twelve people were killed and 30 others injured,” he told Anadolu Agency.

According to the officer, many of the injured are in a critical condition.

“Daesh snipers are making any attempt to rescue those under the debris a tough mission,” he said.

Daesh captured Mosul along with vast swathes of northern and western Iraq, in mid-2014.

For the past seven weeks, the Iraqi army — backed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes and local allies on the ground — has been fighting to retake Mosul, which was once considered Iraq’s second most populous city.

[Photo: Civilians, who were injured in an attack carried out by Daesh, are brought to the Peshmerga check points in the Bazgirtkan Village of Mosul, Iraq on November 24, 2016 before they are taken to the hospitals in Erbil. Photgrapher: Muhabiri Yunus Keleş/AA]