Three civilians from the same family were killed in Ramadi

The civilians died and sustained injuries when unidentified warplanes carried out an air raid near a house west of Anbar’s city of Ramadi, a local official was quoted saying. Emad al-Dulaimi, mayor of the city of Rutba, said unidentified warplanes killed a woman, her 13-year-old daughter and wounded her husband in Okashat, north of the city (310 Km west of Ramadi).

Local officials have occasionally reported civilian deaths in airstrikes by unidentified jets in the same region. The Iraqi government forces, as well as the U.S.-led coalition, have occasionally faced accusations of causing deaths among civilians during operations targeting Islamic State havens.

Islamic State militants have held the towns of Anah, Rawa and Qaim, west of Anbar, since 2014, when they occupied a third of Iraq to proclaim their self-styled “caliphate”. So far, there has not been a wide-scale campaign to retake those regions, but occasional offensives managed to take over several surrounding villages.

The Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul, the group’s former capital in Iraq, in July, and said it was going to proceed towards other group holdouts, including Anbar. Also late July, Iraqi warplanes reportedly dropped millions of messages telling locals that liberation offensives for the province were nearing, and telling them to stay away from militants’ deployments.

In the same context, Islamic State militants killed a police officer and his family members after invading his home in northwestern Kirkuk, according to a security source. Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that Islamic State members sneaked on the dawn of Friday into al-Maleh village in al-Dabas region  (50 Km northwest of Kirkuk), attacked a police officer’s house and killed him and seven of his family members.

Islamic State militants have held areas in southwestern Kirkuk since 2014, when they declared a “caliphate” rule on a third of Iraq and Syria. Since then, militants have executed hundreds of security agents and civilians collaborating with security troops, besides executing civilians attempting to flee the enclave.

Local tribal leaders and politicians from Kirkuk have mounted pressure on the Iraqi government to hasten with invading Hawija, the group’s largest stronghold in the southwest of the province, suggesting that its people were experiencing a humanitarian crisis under the group’s rule as the group continues to massacre civilians attempting to flee the town. The Iraqi government and military commanders have set Nineveh’s town of Tal Afar as the next target for operations against Islamic State holdouts.

On the other hand, Kirkuk’s governor Najmuddin Karim has defied a court ruling and insisted to keep Kurdistan Region’s flag flattering alongside the Iraqi one in the province.

An administrative court in the province ruled on Thursday to lower the Kurdish flag, reversing a controversial decision by Karim late March to raise it alongside the Iraqi one above government buildings, which he adopted following a vote inside the province’s council.

“There is no constitutional article banning the raising of the Kurdish flag as long as the Iraqi one is raised,” the governor said in a press statement.

Karim has been an ardent supporter of the vote Kurdistan Region scheduled for September 25th on independence from Iraq. He recently said a Kurdish delegation visiting Baghdad to discuss differences over the planned poll represented Kirkuk, one of the territories to which both Baghdad and Erbil claim sovereignty.

“The government of Iraq neglects Kirkuk and fails to provide any services to its citizens because it is confident that the province is not part of Iraq,” Karim said in statements following the verdict. “I am confident that the referendum will end successfully, and that the majority of Kurdistan people will vote for independence,” he added.

Since it set the schedule for the controversial poll, Erbil has stressed it was not backtracking on the plan.

Baghdad regularly argued the move was untimely as the country struggles to drive out Islamic State militants who had taken over large areas of the country since 2014.

“The federal government will not partake, support or fund the referendum on the Kurdish region’s independence from Iraq,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi said in a statement last in June.

Kurdistan gained autonomous governance based on the 2005 constitution, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of conflicts.