Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is coming under great pressure from Sunni and Western powers to reduce or dismantle the Popular Mobilization Forces, which are backed by Iran. Some of the militiamen may have been redeployed to Iran to quash protests, but others are still being used to fight Islamic State militants. A fresh operation was launched in Kirkuk province.
At least 22 people were killed, and four more were wounded in recent violence:
A bomb in an industrial neighborhood of Latifiya left one dead and two wounded.
A tribal fighter was killed and another wounded in Dibs.
In Mosul, militiamen shot and killed a Kurdish cab driver whose brother is a Peshmerga member.
Gunmen killed a woman in Hamdaniya.
A civilian was shot dead in Abu Ghraib.
An operation in Muqdadiya left 12 militants dead and one more wounded.
In Kirkuk, operations left four militants dead.
A militant leader was killed in the Hamrin Mountains.
