Militias Won’t Participate in Tal Afar Liberation; 21 Killed in Iraq

Iranian artillery units, likely targeting Kurdish rebels, shelled areas of Iraqi Kurdistan overnight.

Jawad al-Tulaibawi, a militia leader, said that the militias will not participate in the liberation of Tal Afar due to local and international criticism. The militias have broken such promises in earlier campaigns.

At least 21 were killed and 14 were wounded in recent violence:

In Mosul, militants shot and killed two civilians and wounded three more who were crossing the Nasr Bridge. An undisclosed number of civilian bodies were found in a basement used as an execution chamber.

In Baghdad, two bombings left one dead and seven wounded.

A bomb in Qara Tapa wounded a farmer and a militiaman.

Two militiamen were wounded in a bombing in Jurf al-Nasr (Jurf al-Sakhar).

Eleven militants were killed in Anah and Rawah.

Security forces killed three militants in the Hamrin Mountains.

Three militants were killed in Hammam al-Alil.

In Tal Afar, a man killed his militant father. Heavy shelling on the city was reported.

Author: Margaret Griffis

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