Parliament’s first deputy speaker, Sheikh Dr. Humam Hamoudi, issued a statement declaring that Mosul’s “left bank” (the half of the city that lies east of the Tigris River) is now under complete control. Similar statements were issued last week, but then the fighting continued. According to Iraqi authorities the fighting is now limited to the Rashidiya district. The defense department also released a victory statement but later removed it from the department’s website.
Many Islamic State militants have escaped to western Mosul as others began clearing out homes on the right (west) bank of the Tigris to use as defensive locations.
At least 161,000 people have been displaced during the Mosul operations. Authorities fear for the 750,000 people believed to still be in the western neighborhoods.
At least 97 were killed or executed, and 20 more were wounded:
Authorities in Samarra announced the executions of 31 prisoners on murder charges stemming from the Camp Speicher massacre in 2014.
Three children were killed and six were wounded when several mortars landed on their location in Sharqat.
A car bomb in Talibiya killed one person and wounded six more.
In Mosul, shelling left eight wounded in Zera’i. Eleven militants were killed in an airstrike.
Airstrikes in the Qaim region left 38 militants dead at several locations.
An airstrike killed five Azerbaijani militants, including a recruiter, near Tal Afar.
Five militants were killed during an airstrike on Haditha.
In Baghdad, security forces killed a suicide bomber.
Security forces killed a suicide bomber in the Tharthar Basin.
