Update for Friday, July 29, 2016

International Committee of the Red Cross warns that an additional 1 million Iraqis may be displaced in coming weeks as the campaign to retake Mosul and fighting in other areas intensify. There are already 3 million internally displaced people in the country and aid supplies are running short.

This does not strike me as a good idea. Iraq will incorporate Shiite militias into its armed forces, paying their salaries, allowing them to use military bases, and officially bringing them under military command. However, the sectarian nature of the force will not be changed. The militias have been credibly accused of atrocities against Sunni Arab civilians.

And it isn’t getting any better. Member of Parliament Raad Al-Dahlaki accuses the Shiite militias of bombing refugee camps, an accusation with which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees concurs.

I have to acknowledge the eloquent words of Khizr Kahn, whose son died heroically as a U.S. soldier in Iraq, before the Democratic National Convention.

U.S. military admits to killing 14 civilians in air strikes in Iraq and Syria from may 2015 through April of this year. This is a small fraction of those reported by other sources.

Five U.S. troops are reported to have been injured in fighting in Afghanistan recently, three of them seriously enough to be evacuated. They were accompanying Afghan forces in Nangarhar.

SIGAR reports that the Afghan government has lost control of territory from January to May, and now controls just 65.6% of the country.