US aircraft bombed a hospital on Wednesday in the ISIS-held city of Mosul to help pinned-down Iraqi forces, and for now does not believe any civilians were hurt. ISIS fighters were using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades inside the Al Salem hospital to batter an Iraqi Security Forces unit, which requested air support. Iraqi forces were hit with heavy counterattacks and six vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, the US-led coalition said in a statement. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said during a Thursday briefing that the strike hit the hospital and helped Iraqi forces move back to a safer position. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, has directed a review of the strike, but there are no indications that civilians were harmed, Dorrian said.
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…