A major operation in Salah ad-Din province continued on Monday, while bombers struck in Baghdad. At least 171 were killed and 210 were wounded.
At least 27,000 troops are participating in the operation to liberate Salah ad-Din province from Islamic State militants. Some of the service members are Iranian, including Commander Qasim Soleimani, who is the head of the Quds forces back home. Soleimani is in charge of the Shi’ite militias at the very least, if not a larger proportion of troops. The operation was named, perhaps informally by some of troops, “Here I am Messenger of Allah.”
In Dour, 11 militiamen were killed and 43 more were wounded in clashes. A Coalition strike left 20 militants dead and 30 wounded; the air forces were likely French or Iraqi. Three militant snipers were also killed. Part of the government complex in the city was retaken by Iraqi forces.
In the Samarra area, sixteen security personnel were killed while advancing toward militant territory. A suicide bomber killed four troops. Forty militants were wounded in Sunday’s clashes.
Eight militiamen were killed and 42 more were wounded during clashes in Qadisiya. Dozens of militant casualties were reported as well.
A suicide bomber in al-Jalam killed seven troops and wounded 15 more.
In Baghdad, one person was killed and nine were wounded by a blast in the Mashtal neighborhood. A bomb at a market in Doura left one dead and five wounded. A bomb in central Baghdad killed two people and wounded 10 more. A body was discovered in Baghdad al-Jadida.
Two people were killed and seven were injured when a bomb exploded on an athletic field in Husseiniya.
An I.E.D. in Abu Ghraib killed one person and wounded three more.
Three dumped bodies were found in Yusufiya.
In Sinjar, five boys were executed for working with the Peshmerga; they were from 13- to 15-years-old. Ten bodies were recovered from a mass grave. Fifty militants were killed during an attack that also left Peshmerga casualties.
An attack on a residential building yesterday in al-Baghdad killed a woman and wounded three more; earlier reports mentioned only two dead children.
In Mosul, militants executed an army major.
Gunmen wounded three people, including a policeman, in Abu Saida.
Security forces killed 15 militants, including a commander in al-Ta’mim.
Seven militants were killed in Makhmour.
A suicide bomber was killed in Abu Issa.
