IRAQ — An air strike by a U.S.-led coalition flattened an entire neighborhood of a northern Iraqi town controlled by “Islamic State” militants, killing dozens of people, including civilians, witnesses and security sources said.

The strike targeted an “Islamic State” bomb-making factory in Hawija overnight on Tuesday, triggering a series of secondary explosions that reduced the surrounding area in the industrial district to rubble.

Residents and security sources put the number of people killed at around 70.

Sixty-seven-year-old Hawija resident Hassan Mahmoud al-Jubbouri said he heard planes overhead for around 10 minutes before the initial explosion, which shattered the windows of his house.

“I ran with my sons and wife and took cover under the staircase,” he said. “Three to four powerful explosions followed the first blast and I felt the roof of my house was about to collapse over our heads.”

Jubbouri ventured out hours later, accompanying a neighbor to the area, which he compared to the site of a nuclear bomb, with flames and smoke still rising.

“The gunmen were shouting and looked very confused,” Jubbouri said. “I helped pull a family of six from the debris. Their bodies were mutilated. We brought a blanket and gathered all the body parts inside and took them to the cemetery,” he said, adding they buried the remains in a single grave.