In Mosul, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially confirmed the liberation of the city from the grip of the Islamic State militants. A weeklong holiday has been declared across Iraq to celebrate the victory, which came after almost nine months of fighting and over three years of occupation. This does not mean that ISIS/Daesh are finished in Iraq, but Mosul was the largest city that the group was able to capture. It is likely that sleeper cells will continue to stage attacks in Mosul.
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan again expressed his opposition towards an independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan that is scheduled for September. Although Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government have good relations, a truly independent state could threaten Turkey by escalating tensions with Turkey’s Kurdish population.
Police in Mosul announced that over 1,000 militants were killed in the battle for Old Mosul but gave no figures for security or civilian casualties.
At least 106 people were killed and 11 were wounded:
In Abbasi, militants executed 32 men and beat a number of women.
Militants hanged seven children in Tal Afar.
Three civilians were killed and seven were wounded by shelling in Imam Gharbi.
A bomb in the Hamrin Mountains left three dead and three wounded. All were from the same family that was trying to escape Daesh.
Three suicide bombers in Hit killed a policeman.
Turkish airstrikes targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K.) guerrillas in Avasin-Basyan left three dead.
In Mosul, security forces killed 17 militants.
In Anah, airstrikes killed 13 militants.
At least a dozen militants were killed in Rawah.
In the Makhoul Mountains, five militants were killed and one more was wounded.
Five militants were executed by their own colleagues near Metabijh.
An airstrike near Shirqat killed a militant leader and several others.
A militant leader was killed trying to escape across the Tigris River at Yarimja.
