Updated at 11:47 a.m. EDT, Nov. 8, 2014
Because Iraqis like to shop on the weekly prayer day, Fridays are an opportune time for bombers to attack markets, particularly pet shops. Today was no exception. Also, there were more reports of executions of Albu Nimr tribe members in western Iraq; however, only a few militant deaths were reported. At least 119 people were killed and 77 more were wounded.
In the wake of the revenge killings in Anbar this week, top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a statement calling on the Iraqi government to arm Sunni tribes fighting the Islamic State. Most of the dead appeared to be police or Sahwa members from the Albu Nimr tribe, and their strategic loss clearly endangers even Shi’ites.
Meanwhile, the mass graves death toll was revised upward to 252 killed. That’s 24 more fatalities than was previously reported. However, this group also included elderly men and children. They were found near the Euphrates River. There are also reports of another execution. In Hit and Ziwiya, 52 people were executed. At least 300 people were kidnapped in recent days.
In Baghdad, a bomb killed five people and wounded 15 more at a sheep market in Suweib. Two people were killed and nine were wounded by a blast in Radwaniya.
Four people were killed and 11 more were wounded in a blast at a Madaen market.
A bomb in Yusufiya killed eight people and wounded 28 more at a market.
Militants executed four people in Kubaisa.
In Muqdadiya, shelling left three dead and four wounded.
Artillery fire killed two and wounded four in Falluja.
In Amiriyat al-Falluja, shells wounded a woman and three children.
A roadside bomb near Baquba wounded two farmers.
Clashes broke out in Zaidan.
In Sinjar, resistance fighters killed five militants during a raid. Two suicide bombers were detected and killed.
Four militants were killed by their own bomb while trying to reach Jurf al-Sakhar.
Four militants were killed in an airstrike in Saidiya.
