In Iraq, a suicide truck bomb struck a police checkpoint south of Baghdad Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding about 40 others. Meanwhile, fighting raged in western Mosul, where civilians remain trapped amid fighting by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and ISIS. On Wednesday, the head of U.S. Central Command admitted to a House committee the United States probably played a role in the deaths of as many as 200 civilians in an airstrike on Mosul on March 17. At the White House, President Trump said Tuesday evening the battle to retake Mosul was going well.

President Donald Trump: “We’re doing very well in Iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before, and the results are very, very good.”

Meanwhile, Amnesty International continues to criticize the U.S.-backed Iraqi Army for having told civilians to stay in Mosul amid the months-long ongoing offensive rather than to flee. We’ll have more on the crisis in Iraq after headlines.