Mosul Rubble Begins to Give up Its Dead; 26 Killed in Iraq

Security forces near Mosul are holding hundreds of prisoners in cramped quarters. The men are being kept in a small room with no ventilation despite temperatures that easily reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the daytime. Many have health issues. Many claim they did not belong to the Islamic State and are being held on unknown charges. Some men claim to have been there for months without contact with family or friends.

Officials at the United Nations called for an international effort to stabilize Mosul, while detailing the many issues the city is facing. Over 700,000 people fled the fighting in western Mosul, but it is unclear when many of them will be able to return. Meanwhile, another humanitarian crisis is brewing in Shirqat, where food supplies for 20,000 civilians are thinning out.

A government source says that the militants in Tal Afar are executing their own families to avoid having them tip off security forces.

At least 26 were killed and five were wounded:

In Mosul, the bodies of five small children were found underneath rubble. A bomb killed a civil defense worker and wounded three more. A civilian was shot dead in crossfire.

An attack on Chragh left five people dead including a policeman and a cleric.

Four militiamen were killed and one more was wounded in a clash near Tal Afar. Two militant women were found dead in a house.

In Baghdad, a bomb killed a soldier and wounded another.

Several Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K.) members were killed in Turkish airstrikes near Zab.

Seven militants were killed in the Nineveh Desert.

Author: Margaret Griffis

Margaret Griffis is a journalist from Miami Beach, Florida and has been covering Iraqi casualties for Antiwar.com since 2006.