At least 77 people were killed and 23 more were wounded. Some of these victims were killed during a massacre last week. Meanwhile, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani asked lawmakers to hurry building the new government in order to help reduce the chaos across the country. Also, new eye witnesses emerged in the slaughter of dozens of prisoners on Monday.
Politics:
In a message read by an aide at a sermon, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged lawmakers to select top political positions when the new parliament meets on Tuesday.
Kurdish President Massoud Barzani made it clear that the Kurds have no intention of giving up the territory they seized after Iraqi troops abandoned Kirkuk and other towns. He brought up Article 140 of the Constitution, which promised a referendum about the status of the traditionally Kurdish areas in Kirkuk, Ninewa, Salah ad Din and Diyala provinces. However, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party claimed this statement "has no value" as they are subject to the Constitution. But Barzani also said that the takeover of Kurdish lands "completed" the provisions of Article 140.
The Turkmen minority group in the Kirkuk region has finally received weaponry from the central government and is ready to join the fighting. Until now, they had been almost entirely under the protection of Peshmerga fighters because Baghdad had been slow to send supplies. They’ve also been at the mercy of militants, who attacked small villages last week, killing 25 people more than had been previously reported.
New details in a mass execution of prisoners near Hilla on Monday came to light today.
Fighting:
A teaching hospital in Tikrit was bombed. It is where 46 Indian nurses remain trapped by the fighting. The military said 12 militants were killed during the campaign.
A helicopter airstrike killed 11 militants, including one of their leaders, in al-Zaghdan. Albu Nemr tribesmen helped with the operation.
In Muqdadiya, clashes left one militant dead and two policemen wounded. Two civilians were killed and five more were wounded during shelling.
Security forces killed a suicide bomber in Mahmoudiya. Four people were killed and eight more were wounded during shelling.
Mortars struck a police station in Fadhiliya, where they left one dead and eight wounded.
Twenty militants were killed across Anbar province.
In Saidiya, clashes left heavy casualties.
Thousands of Christians fled Qara Qosh after it came under a mortar attack.
