Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that international flights to the Kurdish region will begin within a week. The flights were banned after the Kurds held a non-binding independence referendum last September.
Suspected Islamic State militants blew-up a mosque in Ilam.
At least 32 people were killed, and 11 more were wounded in recent violence:
Two members of a security group were killed at a checkpoint near Samarra, and a third member was wounded. A militiaman killed a senior officer from P.M. Abadi’s security team and one of the officer’s personal bodyguards. Brig. Gen. Sharif Ismail was heading north ahead of a visit by the premier. At one of the checkpoints members of his convoy quarreled with militia members. They were shot at the next checkpoint.
In Kirkuk, six people were wounded when a motorcycle bomb exploded.
A bomb in Taji killed a civilian and wounded four others.
Airstrikes killed nine militants in the Rutba region.
Eight militants were killed in an ambush in Riyadh.
In Rebza, militiamen killed seven militants.
Soldiers killed four militants in Shirqat.
A militant was killed in Hammam al-Alil.
