Attacks in two Iraqi cities overnight killed at least 16 people as the fighting between Sunni extremists from the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) continued unabated.
Mortar rounds hit the city of Mahmudiya during the late evening of July 20 and early morning of July 21, killing 11 civilians and wounding 31 others, according to a local police official.
A roadside bomb in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib exploded as an army patrol passed by, killing two soldiers and three volunteers who had joined forces opposing the Islamic State (IS) militants.
Iraq's Christian population continued to suffer as IS insurgents ordered monks to leave the fourth-century Mar Behnam Monastery near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh.
The militants rejected a request from the monks to take away religious relics kept at the monastery.
