Kurds and Shi’ites Clash; 131 Killed across Iraq

Parliament’s speaker, Salim al-Jabouri, visited Washington D.C. and was promised $9 million in humanitarian aid. The U.S. has given Iraq $416 million in such aid since 2004. Jabouri met with U.S. President Barack Obama and several other officials.

At least 131 were killed and 16 were wounded:

Five people were killed in clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga members and Shi’ite militiamen near Jalawla and Saidiya. The Peshmerga were digging trenches to separate Jalawla from the Shi’ite-held Saidiya when the fighting broke out. Parts of Diyala province have large Kurdish populations that the Kurdish Regional Government would like to incorporate into their autonomous region. For that reason, Shi’ite militiamen remained behind in Diyala after fighting to rid the province of Islamic State militants. Other clashes between the two groups have occurred in the recent past.

Shi’ite militiamen also are boasting that they will liberate Anbar province without outside help, even though the Sunni population wants them gone as well.

An operation somewhere near Ramadi in which 48 militants were killed also left six security personnel dead and 16 wounded.

In Mosul, six security personnel were executed. Nine militants were killed in an airstrike.

A civilian was gunned down in Ghazaliya.

Thirty militants were killed during operations in the Ajil and Alas oil fields.

An operation in Garma left 16 militants dead. More deaths were reported in airstrikes.

In Tikrit, 10 militants were killed.

Militants were killed during airstrikes in Baiji.

Author: Margaret Griffis

Margaret Griffis is a journalist from Miami Beach, Florida and has been covering Iraqi casualties for Antiwar.com since 2006.