U.S. Ambassador Douglas Silliman announced that the U.S. will continue gradually reducing the number of troops in Iraq.
Shi’ite militiamen are accused of forcing the council in Tuz Khormato to sack its Kurdish mayor.
Militiamen arrested 56 Islamic State militants in Kirkuk and sent their families to refugee camps.
Shi’ite militias have announced forming a political coalition, al-Fatih, to run in the upcoming national election. The militias that have already joined include the Badr Organization, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hizbollah , and al-Nujaba.
Three Kurdish parties (Goran, Komal and Coalition for Democracy and Justice) have also aligned themselves as the Nishtiman list for the upcoming election.
Iraq estimates that damages from the Islamic State invasion have cost the country $100 billion dollars.
At least 17 person killed, and 17 more were wounded in recent violence:
A bomb in Madaen killed one person and wounded six more.
In Qadisiya, a bomb wounded six people after a soccer match.
A bomb wounded three in Nahrawan.
One person was wounded in a roadside bombing in Muqdadiya.
In Jbela, gunmen wounded a judicial investigator.
Security forces in Kanous and Imam killed 12 militants.
Four militants were killed in the Makhoul Mountains.
