On Saturday, Iraqi troops opened a second front in the battle for Qayara, a town just south Mosul wanted for its strategic airbase. Troops have been trying to recapture it, but months of operations launched from Makhmour have failed to reach the city.
Lt. Gen. Abdelwahab al-Saedi, commander of the Fallujah operation said that about 1,000 militants have been killed during the operation to recover the city. These figures have not been confirmed independently.
About 20,000 people have fled Fallujah in the last day; however, there are few services available to them in the displacement camps circling the city.
At least 53 were killed and 38 more were wounded:
In Haj Ali, a car bomb targeting displaced civilians killed 12 and wounded six more.
Clashes in Amerli killed five policemen and wounded 10 more.
Three separate bombings, one of them a suicide blast, in Tuz Khormato killed three people and wounded 11 more; the suicide bomber targeted the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Security forces killed a militant outside of town.
Heavy fighting continues in Fallujah. A missile hit a Humvee, killing two special forces soldiers and wounding another. Shelling left an Iraqi commander dead and four soldiers wounded. A suicide bomber also died.
Militants executed three civilians in Qayara.
In Garma, four explosives experts were killed as they attempted to dismantle the booby traps left in a home.
Three militiamen were gunned down in Shakrak.
At the frontlines near Baiji, mortars killed two policemen and wounded three soldiers. Two suicide bombers were killed.
A bomb wounded three soldiers in Mukhisa.
In Hit, security forces killed eight militants.
Five suicide bombers were killed in Muqdadiya.
