Kurdish forces have increased Kurdish controlled territory in Iraq by about 50 percent since the beginning of operations against the Islamic State militants. What they will be allowed to do with it is up for speculation.
Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that ISIS/Daesh has lost about 50 percent of the territory the group once occupied. He also announced that $181 million in humanitarian aid will go to help Iraqis displaced by the war.
At least 51 people were killed and 19 were wounded:
In Baghdad, gunmen attack a home in the Rashad neighborhood, where they killed a married couple and two children. Gunmen killed the driver of a car in Adil.
Two people were killed and eight more were wounded in a blast at a Tarmiya market.
Gunmen in Barwana killed a civilian and wounded another.
In Sdera, militants cut off the feet of seven young people who were caught graffitiing messages calling on citizens to take up arms against Daesh.
A bomb wounded three Peshmerga in Baquba.
In Salah ad Din province, security forces killed 30 militants.
Security forces killed three militants in Thar Thar.
At least seven militants were killed in an airstrike against Mtabijh. Yesterday, only six were reported killed in the strike.
An artillery strike killed two militants in Kasarat.
A bomb near Bashiqa killed a Peshmerga member.
Several militants were killed in Korean Village.
