Security forces launched an operation to ferret out dormant Islamic State cells in the Rutba area in Anbar province. Rutba is near the Jordanian border and was once a militant stronghold.
At least 45 people were killed and three were wounded in recent violence:
Turkey announced that 35 guerillas were killed during Friday airstrikes that targeted a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) meeting in the Qandil region.
Two adults were killed and their three children were wounded when they came across a bomb in Khanaqin.
Militants killed two truck drivers and kidnapped seven people from a highway between Baghdad and Kirkuk.
An airstrike on Farhatiya left six militants dead.
