As the fight for Mosul draws closer, so does the day that Baghdad and Arbil will have to discuss the new border for Kurdistan. Peshmerga forces have been busy recovering traditional Kurdish territory stolen from Iraq by the Islamic State. Those gains may have come at a cost to other ethnic groups in northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi reported that operations on Khalidiya Island are now ending and about 1,000 militants were killed.
At least 175 people were killed and 19 more wounded:
Militants executed 48 young men in Hawija. The men had been detained in several towns near Riyadh and imprisoned for months.
In Baghdad, two attacks on Friday left four people dead and 17 wounded.
Militants killed four police officers in Rutba.
A bomb in Zanqar killed one Peshmerga and wounded two more.
Police in Jabara accused Shi’ite militiamen of kidnapping a Sunni father and his five sons.
Sixty militants were killed in airstrikes on Tal Afar.
In the Jazira area, security forces killed 30 militants.
Twelve militants were killed in an airstrike against Saidiya.
A car bomb on a road between Qayara and Makhmour left 10 militants dead.
In Hit, airstrikes left three militants dead.
Security forces in Baiji killed two militants.
In Mosul, a militant leader was killed in an airstrike.
