December 11, 2015
REPORTS FROM IRAQ
Today’s Major Developments
Iraq seeks UN Security Council resolution against Turkey.
Iraqi forces gain more ground in Ramadi.
Diyala documents show fleeing Daesh militants lack public support.
Turkish citizens quit Basra after PMF ultimatum.
Daesh vehicle bombs cause major casualties in Syria.
BAGHDAD
Political developments
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has directed his Foreign Affairs ministry to lodge a formal complaint regarding the Turkish deployment in Iraqi territory and to ask the UN Security Council to “carry out its responsibility.” It called for an emergency Security Council meeting to discuss the Turkish presence in Iraq, a call echoed again in a statement issued today by Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari. [Sumaria] [Sumaria]
Ján Kubiš, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and the representative of the UN Secretary General in Iraq, said the UN considers the Turkish deployment a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. [Sumaria]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Friday Ankara’s refusal to withdraw troops from Iraqi territory, while expressing surprise at the reaction to the presence of Turkish troops after they had been deployed in Iraq for a year and a half. The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkish forces have been present in Iraqi territory for over a year without any protest from Iraq or other states. He alleged that Iraq was conducting a campaign of incitement against Turkey. The Turkish PM stressed Turkey’s commitment to Iraq’s territorial integrity, and adding that “the presence of terrorist organizations in Iraq threatens the security of Turkey.” [Sumaria]
DaeshDaily comment. A clear commitment to Iraq’s territorial integrity is exactly what is lacking. As we have noted repeatedly, Turkey’s movement into Bashiqa has nothing to do with its training program for the Kurds, which is not in Bashiqa, but it seems closely connected to the schemes of both Barzani and the Ninewa separatists to violate Iraq’s territorial integrity.
Abadi made a televised address today in which he said Iraq was still open to dialogue with Turkey to resolve the crisis, while asserting Iraq’s right to take all measures to protect its sovereignty. The PM said Iraq hoped to have good relations with all its neighbors and that its measures to assert its position in the dispute with Ankara did not target the Turkish people. [Mada]
PM Abadi says there are no foreign troops with armored vehicles in Iraq except the Turkish troops. He says Iraqi didn’t ask for troops from any country. [Rudaw]
DaeshDaily comment. Abadi is responding to Turkey and its supporters’ argument that Turkey can have troops in Iraq because Iran does.
The current Governor of Ninewa Nofal Hammadi Al-Sultan has denied reports in the Iraqi media which claim that he gave permission for the present Turkish deployment to Bashiqa, which he called an “occupation force.” The reports appeared on the satellite channel Ninewa al-Ghad, which is owned by former Ninewa Governor Atheel Al-Nujaifi, who is linked to the Sunni Arab “National Mobilization Forces” that Turkey has supposedly deployed to Ninewa to train. Al-Sultan said he would file a legal complaint against the channel. [Karemlash]
DaeshDaily comment. With his scheme so quickly exposed, it seems the former Governor is feeling the heat.
Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper reported on Turkish president Erdoğan’s replies to journalists’ questions at the airport as he was departing for a visit to Turkmenistan. When questioned about the troops sent to Ninewa, he replied: “We are a very different country. Iraq is a place teeming with terrorist organizations. Terrorist organizations pose a threat to Turkey at every moment. We came to Iraq in response to an invitation. If the Iraqi central administration takes no measures against absolutely any terrorist attack made on our country from there, we will take the measures. More or less one and a half years have passed. Doesn’t this invite the question, “What’s kept you for one and a half years?” [Cumhuriyet]
DaeshDaily comment. This is another Erdogan misdirection play, analogous to the training excuse. His comment about “one and a half years” refers to Daesh, but Daesh has only rarely attacked within Turkey and not from Iraq, and has in many minds benefited from direct or indirect Turkish cooperation. The terrorists Erdogan really cares about are the PKK, who are in Kurdistan, where Turkey has moved in and out at will in order to counter-attack them. There are probably no PKK fighters in Bashiqa, normally the home of Christians and other non-Muslim minorities.
The Turks are diplomatically isolated on this issue, and on the defensive, and having virtually no acceptable justification for their actions are reduced to making up excuses.
The Turkish Prime Minister explains the developments regarding the Turkish troops in Iraq to Vice President Biden in a phone call, according to the PM’s media office. [IraqPress]
The Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister says his country will conduct an “intensive study” about the security situation in Ninewa before taking any decision regarding the number of its troops, and there is a possibility it will raise the number of its troops there [ARA]
Moqtada Al-Sadr threatened in his Friday sermon to intervene militarily in the crisis, warning of his followers’ readiness to fight “the Turkish occupation” just as they fought “the occupation of America and its allies.” [Mada]
Sistani’s rep in Kerbala asked the Iraqi government to preserve Iraq sovereignty and asked the neighboring countries to respect Iraq and not send troops in the name of fighting terrorism. [Buratha]
Security developments
Iraqi CoR members say political differences are hindering the work of the Quadripartite Coalition operations room. [Mada]
DaeshDaily comment. Are there parliament members who still think the Russians are going to save them? So far, this much-touted arrangement among Russia, Syria, Iran, and Iraq has not made a lot of difference in Syria and has made no visible difference in Iraq.
The Ministry of Electricity has announced that the electricity transmission line for importing power through Diyala has been brought back into service after five towers that facilitate the importation of power from Iran to Diyala and Baghdad were sabotaged in attacks yesterday. []
PM Abadi has ordered the judicial and security authorities to monitor the arrest in Finland of two men charged with participating in the massacre by Daesh at Camp Speicher in 2014 in which as many as 1,700 or more Iraqis, most Air Force cadets, were killed. Finland detained the two 23-year-old Iraqi twins on Friday on suspicion of having killed 11 people in the Speicher massacre, which took place after ISIS seized Tikrit, Finnish police announced. They said the two had reached the country in September along with others arriving as refugees. [Sumaria] [Sumaria]
According to security sources:
- An IED exploded near a popular market in the Shaab area of northeast Baghdad, killing two people and wounding six. [Mada]
- An IED exploded in Boub Al-Sham in north Baghdad, wounding two civilians. [Baghdadia]
- An unidentified man’s body was found bearing gunshot wounds in the Gayyara area of Sadr City in east Baghdad. [Sumaria]
- An IED exploded in a commercial area near Camp Sara in central Baghdad, killing one person and wounding eight others. [Mada]
- Two unidentified decapitated male bodies were found in the Al-Amin area of southeast Baghdad. [Sumaria]
- A man’s body was discovered inside his car bearing gunshot wounds in the Furat area of southwest Baghdad. [Mada]
- An IED exploded in a fish market in the Hamid Shaban area of Abu Ghraib, in western Baghdad Governorate, killing one and injuring six more. [Maalomah]
ANBAR
The Anbar PMF commander, Col. Rashid Falih, has denied reports claiming that US ground forces have entered Anbar to participate in battles, saying that US forces are present in Anbar in a limited advisory capacity concerning the field of aircraft and aerial reconnaissance, and explaining that the forces, who reside at Ayn Al-Asad and Habbaniya air bases, are rotated every six months. The remarks come the day after the US issued its denial of the previous day’s report that 200 US forces had deployed to Ayn Al-Asad airbase allegedly to participate in ground combat in the battle for Ramadi. [Rudaw]
Ramadi
Undeterred by the official denials, Mada Press has again reported that US forces are involved in the battle for Ramadi, saying that American troops have been participating in combat in Ramadi for the past week and the rapid progress by Iraqi forces there is due to their involvement. In addition to this claim, the newspaper cites a security official in Ramadi who reportedly says that US Apache helicopters are waiting for the “green light” to participate in the battle for Ramadi, especially to deploy airborne forces and snipers to assist civilians attempting to escape the besieged city. [Mada]
DaeshDaily comment. Rumors about US forces going into combat in Anbar keep coming up, only to be denied and proven wrong. We don’t know any reason to believe the rumors this time, though US aircraft will almost certainly remain active in the Ramadi area.
Iraqi Forces have announced the launch of operations to liberate the city center of Ramadi from Daesh control, says a Ramadi District Council member, predicting that Iraqi forces would have control of the entire city within the coming few days. [Sumaria]
300 Daesh fighters are besieged inside central Ramadi without an escape route, according to an AP report. [Maalomah]
Iraqi Eighth Division forces are in complete control of Street 60 in south Ramadi city, a Division source has said. An unspecified number of Daesh fighters were killed in the battle for the area today while others were seen fleeing toward Sujariya and Hamadiya south of Ramadi, the source said. [Maalomah]
A security source says Iraqi forces defused 30 IEDs in Tameem, clearing the main road in the area. [Baghdadia]
Operations to liberate the Jazeera Al-Ramadi area are underway involving Anbar Operations Command troops and 500 tribal fighters, says the Northern Ramadi PMF commander. [Sumaria]
DaeshDaily comment. Jazeera Al-Ramadi is essentially the center of the city, but is north of the Euphrates. Ramadi sits on both sides of the river. So far, Iraqi troops have advanced on the south side. Daesh coordinates its operations largely from Jazeera Al-Ramadi, and the road east connects to Falluja, thus the importance of this military objective to Iraq.
The Chairman of the Security Committee in Khaldiya says Iraqi forces don’t have enough explosives experts to deal with all the IEDs and booby-trapped houses in Ramadi. He also says Daesh terrorists are still able to move between Falluja and Ramadi through Jazeera Khaldiya. [Qurtas]
Contradictory accounts are circulating regarding the destruction of a bridge near Ramadi. Mada Press reports that Daesh used IEDs to destroy the Nadhim Bridge, located near Anbar Operations Command headquarters north of Ramadi, in a bid to hamper the progress of Iraqi forces, citing an Anbar Operations Command source. However Al-Sumaria reports that the bridge was destroyed when an Iraqi aircraft destroyed a tanker on the bridge while it was loaded with explosives and being deployed in an apparent suicide attack, citing an unnamed Anbar security source who also reported other damage in the area. [Mada] [Sumaria]
20 Daesh members were killed in separate raids on the Malaab and Dubat areas, six km (4 miles) southeast of Ramadi, an Anbar Operations Command source said. [Mada]
Security forces killed 18 Daesh fighters in the Al-Aramil area south of Ramadi, the IWMC has announced. [Ghad]
Daesh has reportedly destroyed another bridge in Ramadi, which linked central Ramadi to Albu Aitha and Albu Farraj. [Maalomah]
A Daesh emir and several of his associates were killed in an artillery strike in Jazeera Khaldiya, an IFP source said. [Ghad]
Coalition planes struck a Daesh hideout in Albu Assaf west of Ramadi, killing an unspecified number of Daesh members. [Ghad]
A security source says Iraqi forces liberated the stadium area south of Ramadi after a 12-hour heavy battle. [Baghdadia]
DaeshDaily comment. Please pardon our cynicism, but how many times has Iraq announced that its forces “liberated” the stadium area?
A video of the destruction in Ramadi [YouTube]
Falluja
Iraqi Falcon Air forces and the military intelligence directorate conducted a joint operation targeting a gathering of Daesh leaders in the Al-Nizal area of Falluja, the MoD has announced in a statement. Killed in the attack, which the MoD statement said was launched following precise intelligence information, were the Daesh “minister of war” known as Abu Zayad Al-Himiari, the “governor [wali] of Anbar” known as Abu Asad, a communications official known as Abu Zeinab, a security official known as Abu Fatima, and an official responsible for suicide attackers known as Abu Nadia, as well as several other Daesh militants. [Baghdadia]
Coalition warplanes destroyed 7 Daesh shelters south of Falluja, killing the terrorists inside. [BOC Facebook Page]
An Iraqi Army 36th Brigade unit killed 3 Daesh terrorists in Nuaimiya just south of the city, while a 60th Brigade unit killed 3 terrorists and wounded 2 in the Ubaid area. [BOC Facebook Page]
Iraqi forces found two explosives hideouts in Shakha and Hitawiyeen, south of Falluja, and defused 4 IEDs in the Annaz area. [BOC Facebook Page]
Baghdad Operations Command troops killed 4 terrorists and destroyed 2 vehicles and 5 hideouts in Qarma District. [BOC Facebook Page]
Hit/Haditha
Iraqi Army Seventh Division forces used Russian-made Kornet missiles to destroy a Daesh vehicle bomb near the Wahid Bridge in the Baghdadi area, killing the suicide attacker at the wheel. [Sumaria]
IAF aircraft destroyed a vehicle bomb west of Daesh-held Kubaisa, south of Hit, killing two suicide attackers, an Iraqi Seventh Division source said. [Sumaria]
The IWMC says the IAA destroyed a Daesh vehicle bomb that was attacking an Iraqi Army convoy near Kubaisa. [Baghdadia]
DaeshDaily comment. Daesh claimed yesterday that the vehicle bomb killed and wounded many Iraqi soldiers.
Western Anbar
A security source says Iraqi forces killed a suicide bomber who was wearing an explosives vest in the Kilo 160 area. [Baghdadia]
Elsewhere in Anbar
Daesh says its terrorists attacked an Iraqi Army headquarters near the Saudi border, killing 30 soldiers. [A3maq]
SALAHUDDIN
Baiji
Iraqi forces and PMFs stopped a Daesh attack in the Al-Asmida area north of Baiji, resulting in an unspecified number of Daesh casualties. [Ghad]
The IWMC says the IAF launched an airstrike on Daesh in the Awasha area in the Himrin Mountains, killing 7 Daesh fighters and destroying an oil tanker. [Ghad]
A PMF source says PMFs killed 7 Daesh terrorists who were trying to sneak into Himrin Mountains. The source says the terrorists used animals for their transportation. [Harbi]
Tikrit
Three Daesh members have been killed in the Jazeera area in a joint operation by Iraqi forces and PMFs, a Salahuddin Operations Command source said. [Ghad]
Samarra
The IWMC says two Daesh suicide terrorists attacked a PMF military post north of Samarra. PMFs killed the first bomber but the second detonated himself, killing a PMF and wounding another. [Buratha]
Southern Salahuddin
Displaced persons living in Hardaniya camp in southern Salahuddin have decried the local and federal governments for ignoring their plight, stressing their desire to return to their homes in liberated areas. One man spoke to Mada Press describing his flight from his village near Balad after Daesh killed one of his sons, saying that the negligence of Iraqi officials is harder to endure than the deprivation and harsh weather conditions in the camps, and calling on Iraqi officials to conduct field visits to the camps to observe conditions there. A child in the sixth year of primary school told Mada that children in the camp had not washed their heads with shampoo or soap in months; she wants to return home to live like her peers and continue her studies. [Mada]
DIYALA
Baquba
Daesh documents retrieved from an abandoned hideout in the Himrin Hills northeast of Baquba show that fugitive Daesh militants are not finding help from Diyala’s residents, the Diyala police commander announced. The documents, reportedly found by Iraqi police and PMFs two days ago, discuss the difficult material conditions that fleeing Daesh militants are suffering in the area without material support, and describing the refusal of many families in liberated areas to shelter Daesh members, referring even to cases of families refusing to support their own relatives. The documents also reportedly contained information on Daesh planning in the area, the commander said. [Sumaria]
Muqdadiya/Abu Saida
The Muqdadiya area is facing an “agricultural catastrophe” due to the embargo imposed by security forces on importing chemical fertilizers, the head of the local council has warned, appealing to Diyala GC to intervene. [Sumaria]
Northern Diyala
Iraqi police defused 15 IEDs and seized Daesh vehicles and supplies in various areas of the Governorate, Diyala Police command has announced, It says the security plan for the Governorate has moved from the phase of “clearing and liberating” to the phase of “pre-empting” Daesh footholds and ferreting out dormant cells in the province.
Diyala police operations concentrated especially on the villages of Dashtan, Al-Anwar, and Hafayer, which have been previously used by Daesh as launching points for operations including hitting power transmission towers (see above in Baghdad) and disrupting the highway linking central Iraq to Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, the source said, adding that the topography of the area was such that in one area Iraqi police had to cover a 7 km (4 mile) radius on foot. [Mada]
KIRKUK
A Peshmerga commander says Coalition airplanes and Peshmerga artillery bombed and shelled Daesh trenches west of Kirkuk, destroying 15 of them. He also says Daesh fighters are overwhelmed by the bombing and some are shaving their beards and joining the civilians trying to enter Kirkuk. [Rudaw]
Unidentified armed men traveling in a civilian vehicle but dressed in clothes that resemble military garb abducted an individual from in front of his home in the Al-Nasr area of Kirkuk city. [Mada]
NINEWA
Mosul
Coalition warplanes struck a vehicle carrying four Daesh members near Mosul University, killing the occupants, a PUK spokesman said, adding that Coalition airstrikes also hit a Daesh facility in the village of Ashiq, killing seven Daesh members and injuring three, as well as a farm in Omar Qabji village near Bashiqa, killing and injuring a number of Daesh members. [PUKMedia]
A local source says Daesh executed a former electoral candidate in front of her house in Mosul, after accusing her of opposing Daesh. Daesh prevented her family from arranging any funeral ceremonies because Daesh says she left Islam when she opposed Daesh. [Sumaria]
DaeshDaily comment. These sad incidents keep coming in Mosul. The counter-violence by anti-Daesh citizen groups may be encouraging, but they don’t help the growing number of good people who are dying while politicians and others talk about liberating Mosul “some day soon.”
Daesh has executed one of its high-level commanders on charges of spying for Russia, a local source said. The executed individual, a Chechen, was executed by firing squad in Mosul. [PUKMedia]
Other Governorates
SOUTHERN IRAQ
Basra. Turkish-owned establishments in Basra have been shuttered as their owners flee the governorate just hours after Shia armed factions of the PMF forces in the province gave the Turkish consulate in Basra city 72 hours to vacate its staff from the governorate and close the diplomatic facility. The PMF statement, issued Friday, threatened to target “all Turkish interests in Basra without exception” in case the consulate does not comply with the demand, issued in retaliation for the controversial Turkish deployment in Ninewa Governorate. [Rudaw] [Ghad]
Kerbala. Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani’s representative in Karbala has called for the government to take greater interest in the plight of displaced people in Iraq, many of whom are lacking adequate food, shelter, and humanitarian supplies as winter approaches, he said, calling also for greater support for the tribal forces who are fighting Daesh in Iraq. [Ghad]
REPORTS FROM TURKEY
The Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister says Syrian Kurds are asking Turkey to rid them of the PYD. [ARA]
Turkish authorities say they arrested 913 foreigners from 24 countries in 2015 who were trying to join Daesh in Syria (The total included about 198 from Europe, including 19 Brits, 19 Germans, 18 Frenchmen, 5 Belgians, 5 Dutch, 8 Danes, 14 Swedes, 11 from Ukraine, and 99 from Russia; 2 Americans and 5 Australians; 116 from the Middle East/North Africa area, including 83 Palestinians, 11 Saudis, 7 Egyptians, 5 Tunisians, 5 Moroccans and 5 Iranians; and 472 from Asia including Central Asia, including a surprising 324 from China, 6 South Koreans, 44 Indonesians, 23 Tajiks, 63 from Turkmenistan, 7 Azeris, and 5 Afghans). [Cihan]
DaeshDaily comment. This seems like a high number but it’s only a small percentage of the tens of thousands of would-be terrorists who have crossed into Syria and Iraq to join Daesh, and it won’t persuade many of Turkey’s countless critics who think it did not try that hard to stem the flow.
REPORTS FROM SYRIA
Northeast
Syrian official sources say 60 people were killed in the three Tal Tamr explosions. [SANA]
Daesh claims responsibility for the attack and says it killed 60 “murtads” (people who left Islam). [DabiqNews]
DaeshDaily comment. In Daesh ideology, anyone who doesn’t join Daesh is a murtad, including civilians.
The Asayesh issued a statement saying 25 civilians were killed and 122 wounded in the three explosions in Tal Tamr yesterday. The Asayesh says it’s still looking for more victims under the rubble. [Welati] [Asayish] An earlier story said the casualty numbers were expected to climb, as buildings had collapsed in the blast area and more victims were likely to be discovered in the rubble, according to a doctor in the area. [BasNews]
This disastrous incident has generated political fallout. The PYD’s minister of defense in Jazeera blamed the Turks and the Saudis and linked the attacks to a Syria-focused opposition meeting in Riyadh. He alleged a strategy to create tensions between the Kurds and the Arabs in this area. [Welati] The spokesman of the Syria Democratic Forces, which includes the YPG, says the Riyadh meeting was a conspiracy to legitimize terrorist groups like Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham, which have also been attacking the SDF. [Welati]
DaeshDaily comment: The PYD and the Syrian Democratic Forces were not invited to Riyadh. The Barzani-supported Kurdistan National Council was invited. The fact that Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham are now attacking them, as well as Daesh, presenting them with three enemies, leads them to posit a Sunni Arab conspiracy in which Turkey and Saudi Arabia are allies of all three of the groups attacking them.
Local sources say 6 Syrian Democratic Forces fighters were killed and 7 wounded in a two-vehicle bomb attack in the Jamba village near Al-Hawl. [Erem] [Qasioun]
Daesh says its terrorist killed “tens” of YPG fighters in the attack. [DabiqNews]
The Turkish Army shelled a village west of Tal Abyad with heavy artillery without causing human casualties. [Hawar]
At least one Daesh militant was killed in fighting between Daesh and Kurdish forces in the Qurat Quwaziq village southeast of Kobane, while a Nusra Front fighter was killed in fighting with Kurdish fighters north of Aleppo. [BasNews]
The spokesman of the Burkan Al-Furat (a Syrian armed alliance including the YPG) says his troops shot down two Daesh booby-trapped drones in two areas southwest of Kobane. He also says the Coalition bombed Daesh in the area, destroying many armored vehicles and other targets. [Welati]
Northwest
Local source say Daesh continued its shelling on Tal Aren in Aleppo’s eastern countryside, wounding three civilians. The town was abandoned by the Syrian Army, leaving its citizens to defend themselves against Daesh. [Hawar]
Syrian opposition groups captured the Hamzat village in Aleppo’s northern countryside from Daesh. Clashes also continued near Kufra. In response to the Syrian troop advances, Daesh detonated a vehicle bomb in the nearby Jazer village. A Jabha Shamiya senior military commander was killed in the clashes. [Qasioun] [Qasioun]
Daesh says its suicide terrorist killed dozens of Jabha Shamiya fighters in the attack, including the commander. [DabiqNews]
Central and West
Russian warplanes bombed Daesh in Mahin while Syrian artillery shelled the city. Russian warplanes also bombed Daesh in several areas in Tadmur. [Qasioun]
Daesh says it advanced further near Mahin and captured hills and farms and forced Syrian troops to retreat to the Christian city of Sadad, 37 miles south of Homs city. [A3maq] [DabiqNews]
Daesh publishes photos of the loot its terrorists got in Mahin and more photos about the battle. [DabiqNews] [DabiqNews]
Daesh publishes a video of executing 2 Syrian opposition group fighters. [ADI]
East
Coalition warplanes bombed Daesh-controlled oil refineries near Mayadin, killing and wounding many people, including civilians who work in the refineries for Daesh. [Qasioun]
Heavy clashes and mutual shelling continued in several areas in Deir Ez-Zor, including the Deir Ez-Zor airport area. [Qasioun]
REPORTS FROM OTHER MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Daesh audio newsletter for today in Arabic [DabiqNews]
Daesh publishes another “apocalyptic” video predicting it will fight in Rome soon. [DabiqNews]
Tunisia. Tunisian authorities say they arrested a Salafi takfiri man and his son who were in an advanced stage of building a helicopter in Ben Arous. The man had a son who was a suicide bomber in Syria. [Tunisien]
The Tunisian Ministry of Interior says security forces arrested a cell of 25 terrorists in Kasserine who were planning to conduct terrorist attacks during the New Year celebrations and confiscated explosives materials and terrorism books. [Tunisien]
Nigeria. Boko Haram attacks and then burns an entire village in northeast Nigeria, killing 14 people. [SAWA]
Cameroon. Eight people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide attack in north Cameroon. [Aawsat]
SOCIAL MEDIA SOURCES
Facebook Page of the Day
A Daesh Facebook page
Daesh Twitter Accounts of the Day
https://twitter.com/alansar4islami1
