International desk – At least 60 people were reportedly killed in air strikes on an Islamic State-controlled Iraqi town close to the Syrian border, media reports said on Thursday.

BBC reported quoting witnesses that unidentified jets had targeted the centre of al-Qaim, about 300km northwest of Baghdad, late on Wednesday afternoon.

One strike had missed a mosque used by IS militants as a headquarters and hit residential buildings, they added.

Nineteen children and 12 women were among the casualties, a medic said.

The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency published video purportedly showing the aftermath of what it called a “massacre perpetrated by Iraqi aircraft” in al-Qaim.

The footage showed vehicles on fire on a main road lined with shops, damaged buildings, and the bodies of several children.

Amaq said that more than 120 people had been killed in the air strikes.

One Iraqi MP said he also believed the Iraqi Air Force had carried out the attack.

Ahmed al-Salmani, a member of the Coalition of Iraqi Forces parliamentary bloc, said in a statement that he based the claim on the reported inaccuracy of the strikes and high number of civilian casualties.

There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi military or government.

The US-led multinational coalition that is supporting the government in its fight against IS has also carried out air strikes around al-Qaim.

Al-Arabiya TV put the death toll at 70, but did not say who was thought responsible.

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