In Mosul, the heaviest fighting was reported in the Bakr neighborhood. Fighting is also taking place in Ali Rash. Because civilians are being used as human shields, security forces are making their way slowly into Tel Keppe.
Security forces began a major operation to capture Hammam al-Alil on Saturday. Late in the evening, authorities announced that the city was captured.
Also among the latest villages and districts liberated were Karkukli, Khadraa, Malayan, Quds, and Samah; also Karama Juhaina and Ghahoni. Zahra was also retaken. Also freed were Mossad, Sahaji, and Tel al-Zalat.
Refugees fleeing Mosul have been observed taking shelter in ditches and shallow holes out in the desert. United Nations estimates that about 31,000 civilians have been displaced, so far. Many more civilians may be unable to flee.
Security forces believe about 2,000 militants have been killed in the Mosul theater so far. About 100 of them were suicide bombers.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited troops in Bartala — where a field hospital has seen a steady stream of casualties — before traveling on to Erbil to meet with Kurdish leaders.
At least 65 people were killed and 75 were wounded in recent violence:
In Baghdad, three people were killed and nine were wounded in a blast near a restaurant in Sheikh Omar. At least seven people were killed and 28 were wounded in a string of bombings across the Rashid and Obaidi neighborhoods and in Abu Ghraib. Yesterday, a bomb in Qrayat left one person dead and six wounded, while at least one person was killed and seven were wounded in Amin.
The number of civilians killed in a bombing near Hawija yesterday rose by six dead to a total of 18 killed. At least three policemen were wounded, and a fourth policemen was previously reported as killed.
In Mosul, five soldiers were killed in a suicide blast. Seven women and children were killed in an airstrike in the Shalalat district. A strike killed a senior militant and his companions. Three suicide bombers were killed in Zahra.
In Hawija, 10 militants were killed and 22 were wounded when they car bomb they were preparing exploded.
Security forces killed 16 militants trying to attack Shirqat.
Two suicide bombers were killed in Hammam al-Alil.
A suicide bomber who struck in Aghazil al-Kabir, near Tal Afar, may have been Irish Daesh-sympathizer Terence Kelly.
A suicide bomber was killed in Daquq.
