The United States criticized Turkey’s unauthorized airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday, categorizing them as harmful to the Coalition’s mission, after the strikes killed “partner forces” in the fight against the Islamic State militants. The strikes in Syria killed Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, which Ankara considers an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K.). Turkey has been in an armed conflict with the P.K.K. since 1978. In Iraq, however, Turkey has good relations with Kurdish authorities. Still, several members of Iraqi Kurdistan’s security forces were accidentallykilled or wounded. Turkey excused the accidental casualties by claiming that it was the result of P.K.K. fighters being in the area. Three of the injured security members are being sent to Turkey for specialized medical care.

The Iraqi government announced that it confiscated hundreds of millions of dollars that were part of a ransom payment for the release of a Qatari hunting party that was kidnapped in 2015 in Iraq. The negotiators had brought the money to Baghdad without notifying the government. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called the payment unacceptable but said “due process” would be followed. The relocation of civilians in Syria was part of the same deal.

At least 86 were killed and 16 were wounded:

Turkish warplanes targeted suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K.) sites in northern Iraq for the fifth day in a row. Five Peshmerga members were killed and nine were wounded in Tuesday’s round of bombing near Sinjar. Also killed was a member of the Asayesh forces, which is Kurdistan’s intelligence agency. Forty P.K.K. were reported killed in Iraq.

Also in Sinjar, a landmine purportedly planted by P.K.K. forces killed two civilians and wounded three more.

In Mosul, at least 15 civilians were shot dead after militants pretending to be liberators entered their neighborhood, and the civilians cheered them. A large number of civilians are dying of starvation. Seven militants were killed.

Three bombs in Mahwala killed four people, three of them children, and wounded three more.

Militants executed three civilians in Rawah.

In Baghdad, a policeman was killed by a roadside bomb in Nasr. A blast near Dourashops left one civilian with injuries.

Security forces in Musheirefa killed five militants.

Three militants were killed in Okashat.

Dozens of militants were killed in Tal Afar.

Source: original.antiwar.com