allied forces around Kirkuk. ISIL fighters also planted explosives around several transmission towers, and the destruction of the towers caused several blackouts in Hawija and Kirkuk. 3 October 2018 - The Government of Germany announced a planned extension of its military involvement in Iraq for one year to combat ISIL but will end air reconnaissance missions by 31 October 2019. On the same day unknown gunmen, believed to be ISIL, killed an individual by driving up to them in a car and opening fire, the targeted individual reportedly died at the scene as a result of the gunshot wounds. 4 October 2018 - An operation against ISIL was started by the Iraqi military along with the military forces of France and the United States under the CJTF-OIR coalition in the Anbar Governorate around the city of Qaim and the Syrian border where ISIL continues to operate and maintain a strong and large presence. During the operation ISIL claimed to thwart an American-led assault near the Syrian border and also claimed to have killed 3 US soldiers and wounded 4 others in the clashes, the US military has not confirmed or denied the claimed losses. 5 October 2018 - US-led coalition planes bombed an ISIL position in the village of Kushaf near the Tigris river in the Kirkuk Governorate, reportedly killing 6 ISIL members. ISIL detonated a roadside bomb, killing an oil employee and injuring 11 others in a bus in Baiji in the Saladin Governorate. In a separate attack in Fallujah in the Anbar Governorate, ISIL detonated a car bomb injuring an Iraqi policeman and 3 others. ISIL released a video from Kirkuk, showing its fighters planting IEDs and carrying out ambushes or raids on Iraqi outposts. The video also claimed that the group has killed and injured more than 927 government forces since 2017 in the Kirkuk region, and in the end video the group executed several individuals in remote areas and assassinated two individuals cooperating with the Iraqi government at their houses. 7 October 2018 - ISIL claimed responsibility for the detonation of an explosive device in the Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad that resulted in the death and injury of 12 Shiites. 8 October 2018 - Iraq's interior minister Qasim al-Araji posted a video on his Facebook page which claimed that an unnamed extremist group is behind the murder of 22 year-old Iraqi model Tara Fares. Fares, who