Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has apparently admitted defeat in Iraq and told his fighters to return home or commit suicide. The admission came in a speech that was distributed among militant preachers on Tuesday.
Albania announced it is sending an as yet undetermined number of troops to assist in operations against the Islamic State militants.
The number of people escaping western Mosul operations has reached 28,000, according to the United Nations. Some of the civilians who are unable to flee the city, however, are seeking refuge deeper within Mosul. Medical personnel report that snipers are targeting civilians trying to escape the battlezone.
Iraqi forces took control of the final road leading out of Mosul, trapping the remaining militants within the city.
Two British medics who joined ISIS/Daesh were among those reported killed recently.
The prison in Badush has apparently been recaptured.
The Iraqi government has refused to release official casualty figures, and strong-armed organizations like the United Nations into curtailing its efforts. Nevertheless, aid agencies are saying that the number of casualties, civilian and military, is already in the several thousands.
At least 129 were killed and eight more were wounded in the latest violence:
In Mosul, two militants were killed in Mamoun, and an I.E.D. killed a 60-year-old woman. security forces killed five suicide bombers in Shuhada Park. Forty militants were killed in Mansour. In Jawsaq and Tayaran, clashes left 16 militants dead. Forty people were liberated when security forces discovered two prisons in Tayaran.
In Baghdad, a bomb killed one person and wounded three more in Nahrawan. Two person were wounded in a blast in Amil.
A bomb killed one person and wounded three at a Taji cattle market.
Forty militants were killed in airstrikes in the Samarra region.
In Qaim, an airstrike left 17 militants dead.
Militiamen killed six militants at the Haditha Dam.
