BAGHDAD, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Iraq's air force hit a hospital in a town controlled by Islamic State and other militant groups on Saturday, killing seven patients and wounding 22 others, including children, eyewitnesses said.
The attack on Hawija, near Kirkuk city, was one strike in a series of raids by warplanes in the area, the witnesses said.
The government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Islamic State launched a lightning advance through northern and central Iraq in June, declaring an Islamic caliphate. With the help of U.S. air strikes, Iraq's army and Kurdish forces have been able to push the fighters back from some areas.
Civilian deaths are hard to quantify due to security restrictions in the roughly third of Iraq that Islamic State controls. (Reporting by Oliver Holmes and Raheem Salman; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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