Iraq air strikes kill 17 in areas held by Islamic State

Seventeen people were killed in Iraq on Saturday in air strikes targeting areas controlled by Islamic State militants, witnesses and an intelligence official said.

Two brothers who were members of the Albu Hishma tribe were mistakenly killed when an Iraqi military helicopter attacked the house of an Islamic State militant in the town of Yathrib, 90 km (56 miles), witnesses said.

Fifteen people from the same tribe were then killed in an airstrike as they headed to the funeral of the brothers, said witnesses. Both accounts were confirmed by an intelligence official.

It's not clear who carried out the second strike.

US led airstrikes have helped Iraqi government forces, Kurdish fighters and Shi'ite militias retake some territory from Islamic State militants, who swept through the north in June, consolidating on gains in western Iraq.