In the Khawr Abd Allah estuary, which currently lies within Kuwaiti territorial waters, an altercation between four armed men and Kuwaiti coast guardsmen left one Kuwaiti and one Iraqi wounded on Thursday. A protest took place as well. Demonstrators on the Iraqi side of the border decried a controversial agreement they say gave away navigational rights of the waterway to Kuwait.
Shi’ite militiamen captured the Sahl Sinjar air base. Karim al-Nuri, a spokesman for the Badr Organization, said that it will become an important base for the militias as they continue to fight the Islamic State militants into Syria.
Although Baghdad may declare Mosul liberated in just a week or so, the United Nations expects that another 200,000 people will be displaced in those coming days. Almost 700,000 have already fled, and those in some eastern neighborhoods have been able to return. However, there are now reports that security forces have coerced some families to return to unsafe neighborhoods.
At least 56 were killed and 37 were wounded:
A suicide bomber struck in a Tuz Khormato market, killing nine people and wounding 11 more. An attack outside town killed one soldier and wounded two more; five militants were also killed.
Two people were killed and eight were wounded in a blast at a market in Abu Ghraib.
In Baghdad, a bomb in Resala district killed one person and wounded five more. A suicide bomber was killed.
Militants executed a young man in Hawija.
In Mosul, an Iraqi commander was killed while fighting. Shelling left nine wounded and a forest on fire.
Ten militants were killed in clashes in Ain Fathi.
At least dozen militants were killed in strikes on Baaj.
Airstrikes on Qaim killed at least a dozen militants.
