Targeting worshippers during Friday prayers, bombers attacked two mosques in Diyala province. Also, the military situation for Iraq’s minority groups, the Kurds and the Sunnis, may be changing for the better.
The president of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, Massoud Barzani, said on Friday he would accept U.S. weapons deliveries by whatever manner the U.S. government chooses. Barzani is ending a weeklong trip to the United States. Because Baghdad has been extremely slow in providing weapons to the Kurds, they’ve wanted direct deliveries. Baghdad, however, has balked at that possibility.
Iraqi authorities have signed 1,000 Sunni recruits to form their own Sunni militia, much like the ones the Shi’ites have had for months. Sheikh Rajeh Barakat, who is on the Anbar provincial council, said that if the new Sunni militia receives the same types of weaponry that the Shi’ite militias were given, it will be able to fight the Islamic State militants on its own.
At least 149 were killed and 81 were wounded:
In the Hamrin region, two suicide bombers killed 52 policemen and wounded 20 more.
Eighteen people were killed and 41 more were wounded in a double suicide bombing at a mosque in Balad Ruz. At least three of the dead were security personnel, including the police commando chief.
In Kanaan, another suicide bomber killed four people and wounded 18 more at a mosque.
Gunmen killed four people and wounded two more, all from the same family, in Kubba.
A government employee was assassinated in Muqdadiya.
In Saniya, 22 militants were killed.
Seventeen militants were killed at the Ajil oil field during airstrikes.
Another 17 were killed in clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Sinjar.
In Ramadi, six militants were killed. Four suicide bombers were killed as well.
A militant was killed in Baghdad.
