November 13, 2015
REPORTS FROM IRAQ
Among today’s major developments:
Reports from mainstream media suggest that Daesh is the likely source of today’s disastrous attacks in Paris. Daesh supporters on Twitter started the hashtag “Paris is burning” and are anticipating a statement from Daesh claiming responsibility. [Twitter]
Democratic Syrian Forces claim victory over Daesh in Syria’s northeast, continuing steady recent gains.
ANBAR
Ramadi
There was no reported military activity within the city,
Iraqi joint forces supported by Iraqi and Coalition air power captured the Hay Al-Aramil area, just two kilometers south of Ramadi, a security source says. [Baghdadia]
Iraqi forces operating under air support are advancing on Ramadi from three angles of attack. [Mada]
The Chairman of the security committee in Khaldiya says Iraqi forces supported by Coalition planes advanced in several areas east of Ramadi killing 40 Daesh terrorists and destroying 7 vehicles and 3 boats. [BasNews]
Iraqi forces seized several governmental buildings from Daesh control in the Zeraa area east of Ramadi, a security source says. [Baghdadia]
IAF launched an airstrike on Albu Shahab east of Ramadi city, killing 30 Daesh members including a Tunisian commander. [Mada]
Coalition planes destroyed two Daesh vehicle bombs in the Kilo 5 area, west of Ramadi. [Baghdadia]
IAA targeted a Daesh convoy in the Albu Ali Jassim area north of Ramadi, destroying four trucks carrying explosives and provisions, an Anbar Operations Command source says. [Baghdadia]
Anbar Operations forces advanced toward Ramadi from the north, reaching the headquarters of Police Emergency Brigade on the international highway in the Albu Dhiab area, the Anbar Operations Commander says. The Command says Iraqi forces raised the Iraqi flag over the Emergency Brigade Headquarters. Iraqi forces also killed more than 20 Daesh members and destroyed 6 vehicles, including 2 vehicle bombs, in Jaraishi north of Ramadi. [Baghdadia]
Daesh says a Libyan suicide terrorist attacked Iraqi forces with a vehicle bomb in the Kilo 7 area, killing or wounding many of them. [CDN]
Falluja
An Iraqi Rapid Intervention unit killed 2 Daesh snipers and wounded a third in Nuaimiya south of Falluja. [BOC Facebook Page]
Iraqi forces captured large areas in Kubaishat in Qarma subdistrict, seizing control of the Mosque of Omar, which had functioned as the local headquarters for Daesh in that area. Iraqi troops killed nine Daesh members and defused nine IEDs and three booby-trapped houses. [Mada]
Iraqi forces destroyed a construction excavator rigged with explosives that had been attacking Iraqi forces in Subaihat in Qarma, a local PMF commander says. [Mada]
A local PMF commander says Iraqi forces broke through Daesh defense lines in Shahabi in Qarma, killing 4 Daesh members and destroying two vehicle bombs and a rocket launcher before withdrawing. [Mada]
Baghdad Operations Command troops in Qarma killed 6 terrorists and wounded three others, as well as destroying two vehicles carrying machine guns and two hideouts. [BOC Facebook Page]
Hit/Haditha
Iraqi forces captured Suwainij, near Baghdadi, an Anbar Operations Command says, killing and wounding many Daesh militants in the fighting. [Mada]
Elsewhere in Anbar
People of Rahaliya in Anbar governorate, on the border with Kerbala, have reportedly asked the government to intervene to relieve them of the state of siege their town is suffering at the hands of Iraqi security forces. Iraqi forces are ostensibly attempting to stop Daesh activities but Rahaliya residents say their area has been free of terrorist activities and in fact there are more displaced people living there than original inhabitants. [Qurtas]
SALAHUDDIN
Baiji
A security source says Daesh terrorists used more than 20 boats to infiltrate from Hawija district to the Hanshi village west of Baiji and then attacked Iraqi forces. A security source says six Daesh members and three Iraqi soldiers were killed, and a further 15 Iraqi soldiers wounded in the Hanshi attacks. [Ghad] [Ghad]
Daesh has announced that it launched a massive attack on Iraqi forces in Hanshi and in Shuwaish northeast of Baiji and claims it captured the two areas after heavy clashes, seizing military vehicles and equipment. Daesh says its militants executed three PMF fighters they had captured as well as seizing a Humvee, two SUVs and an SPG rocket launcher. The group also says it captured the Thermal Energy and Gas Energy stations in northeast Baiji. [Dump]
Daesh publishes photos of the battles in “Salahuddin”. [JustPaste]
The IAA bombed Daesh in the Makhoul Mountains area, killing 15 terrorists. [Mawazin]
Shirqat
Daesh says four airstrikes targeted Shirqat without human casualties. [JustPaste]
Tikrit
IWMC says Iraqi forces killed seven Daesh terrorists in Dayoum west of Tikrit. [Mawazin]
Tuz
Prime Minister Abadi ordered Iraqi forces to impose security and stop the fighting in Tuz, and called on local residents to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis. [Sumaria]
The Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia is “waiting for the results” of the negotiations in Tuz, threatening a “cruel response” against the Peshmerga in the event they do not end hostilities against Shia PMFs in Tuz, the group’s spokesman says, adding that the AAH is threatening to send its special forces to Tuz in order to “impose security and prevent violations” if negotiations are not successful. Another AAH spokesman says the Peshmerga looted then burned more than 300 shops and kidnapped 70 citizens. He says the Peshmerga are trying to make demographic changes in Tuz, control of which is disputed between the Iraqi central government and the KRG. The Badr Organization also warned against the Peshmerga’s “seizing lands” policies and says it considers the attacks on Tuz as attacks on Iraq. Twenty Turkmen families who fled the fights in Tuz ask the government for protection. A local source says the Peshmerga burned a Shia mosque in Tuz. [Ghad] [Ghad] [Ghad] [Sumaria] [Ghad]
A Turkmen CoR member says unknown armed men shot and killed a Turkmen pediatrician in Tuz. [Sumaria]
Photos of the aftermath in Tuz [Harbi] [Harbi]
A Turkmen PMF source says the peace deal reached yesterday was broken when armed men from both sides burned properties in Tuz. The source also says the Peshmerga had 28 PMF prisoners while the PMFs are holding 50 Peshmerga members. A joint Kurdish-Turkmen committee met today and agreed to cease-fire terms that include the arrest of anyone who violates the decision. A PUK official says the Peshmerga and the PMFs agreed on the cease-fire, forming a joint security committee and releasing the prisoners from both sides.
BAGHDAD
President Masoum and CoR Speaker Jubouri issued statements congratulating President Barzani on the victories in Sinjar. [Qurtas] [Qurtas]
Twenty-three people were killed and 39 wounded in a suicide attack on a house in Hay Al-Amel in southwest Baghdad, where dozens were gathered to pay respects to the family of a recently deceased person, a security source says. [IraqPress]
Two suicide bombers detonated themselves at a Shia mosque in Sadr City, killing thirteen civilians and wounding 36, an MoI source says, warning that the toll of dead and wounded from this attack is expected to climb. [Buratha]
Daesh claims responsibility for the suicide attacks in Sadr City and Hay Al-Amel, says they were conducted by three Iraqi terrorists, and publishes photos of two of them. [Store2] [Dump] [Dump]
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Baghdad demanding more reforms. [Baghdadia]
A video of the Bzaibiz Bridge after it was opened between Anbar and Baghdad. [Sumaria]
The IAF destroyed a Daesh construction shovel and 2 armored vehicles west of Baghdad. [BOC Facebook Page]
The IAA destroyed a Daesh safe house where its suicide bombers are known to hide out before their attacks, west of Baghdad. [BOC Facebook Page]
Iraqi forces found an explosives storehouse containing 17 IEDs in the Al-Tha’er area in north Baghdad. [BOC Facebook Page]
Security forces defused 3 IEDs in different areas of Baghdad. [BOC Facebook Page]
Daesh says it shelled several areas in Arab Jabour in south Baghdad, including the house of a Sahwa member. [JustPaste]
Daesh says its snipers targeted an Iraqi Army military truck in Tarmiya, killing or wounding many soldiers. Daesh also says it detonated several IEDs that destroyed PMF vehicles and killed the fighters inside them in Tarmiya. [JustPaste]
DaeshDaily comment. The two vehicles mentioned in the report above are of a type used only by civilians as small buses. Neither the Iraqi Army nor the PMFs use these vehicles.
According to security sources:
- A PMF fighter was killed in a raid on his house by unknown armed men in Taji, north Baghdad. [Sumaria]
- Unknown armed men using guns with silencers shot and killed a civilian on Palestine Street in east Baghdad. [Baghdadia]
- An IED exploded on a popular soccer field in Nahrawan in south Baghdad, killing two and wounding four. [Mada]
- Security forces conducted a controlled detonation of an IED in Dora, in south Baghdad. [Sumaria]
- An IED exploded near an auto dealership in Bayya in southwest Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding seven. [Mada]
- Another IED exploded in near the main market of the Bayya, wounding two night guards. [Mada]
- Two civilians were killed and five wounded when an IED exploded near a popular market in Yusufiyah in south Baghdad. [Maalomah]
- A displaced person from Anbar Governorate was killed when a sticker IED attached under his vehicle exploded in Ghazaliya in west Baghdad. [Mada]
- A civilian was killed and four wounded when an IED exploded near a popular market in Bakriya in west Baghdad. [Maalomah]
DIYALA
Unknown armed men on the road between Baquba and the eastern Diyala city of Mandali hijacked a car carrying the salaries of teachers, a security source says. According to the report the teachers whose salaries have been stolen are displaced persons working in special programs to educate displaced children. [Baghdadia]
Baquba
A security source says Diyala police arrested a wanted man responsible for many terrorist attacks in Diyala. The source says the terrorist had been a member of three different terrorist groups before joining Daesh last June. The Diyala Police Chief says the detainee was responsible also for an attack on a local tribal leader in addition to destroying electricity poles. [Sumaria] [Sumaria]
Tribal PMFs stopped a Daesh attack in the Shirween area in Mansouriya, east of Baquba, a Governorate Council member says. This is the ninth such attack on this area this year, he says. [Sumaria]
NINEWA
Sinjar
Kurdish political forces intend to consolidate their political control over Sinjar city following its liberation from Daesh yesterday by Kurdish militia fighters, according to remarks by the KRG President. Massoud Barzani said that the KRG will request that the central Baghdad government make Sinjar a separate governorate rather than returning it to the administration of Ninewa Governorate, and also stressed his view that Sinjar should be part of the Kurdistan region. Only the Kurdistan flag will fly over Sinjar, he added.
The Kurdish forces captured the center of Sinjar and liberated 28 villages during the last two days. The total area liberated is 200 square km. More than 300 bodies of Daesh fighters were found so far after the fighting. A KDP official says the bodies of 126 Daesh members killed in Sinjar were delivered to the morgue in Mosul. [Rudaw] [Rudaw]
The KRG President called upon the United States and the Coalition for support in consolidating control over the area, whose residents, many of them displaced or abducted by Daesh after it took control of the district in 2014, are predominantly of the minority Yazidi faith. He hailed the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga’s bravery in the fight for Sinjar and insisted they were the spearhead of the ground attack and that “no other party advanced before them,” in what appears to be a veiled reference to the Syrian Kurdish fighters of the YPG who were also involved in yesterday’s assault.
Those responsible for the fall of Sinjar to Daesh should be punished, Barzani said, without specifying to whom he was referring. Arabs from Sinjar who did not participate in the killing of Sinjar’s other inhabitants are “our brothers,” he said, while people in the Sinjar area who joined Daesh will “face the same fate” as the Daesh members who came to occupy Sinjar from outside.
DaeshDaily comment: Given the extremely polarized situation in Sinjar and Kurdish territorial ambitions, it would not be surprising to see violence and retribution against Arab residents (whether they supported Daesh or not) and possibly ethnic cleansing of the area.
A video from Sinjar city [Rudaw]
A video of four prisoners captured by the Peshmerga in Sinjar [Rudaw]
A video of a Daesh fighter and two women captured by the YPG in Sinjar [PUKMedia]
A video of a vehicle bomb captured in Sinjar [Rudaw]
Photos of the YPG forces in Sinjar [Hawar] [Hawar]
The PYD issued a statement asking the Yazidi people of Sinjar to form their own “self-management” administration, similar to those the party established Syria. The PYD statement says its fighters are “the real liberators” of Sinjar, adding that some parties that want to claim the victory in Sinjar were the reason for the delay in liberating the area, in what is clearly a veiled reference to the Iraqi Kurdish parties.
DaeshDaily comment. This suggestion might not sit well with the KRG, or with Turkey.
Mosul
Local sources say that tensions are mounting in the city and that gunshots are heard in the streets from time to time. The same sources report that Daesh executed 24 of its own members in Mosul who fled the battles in Sinjar. [BasNews]
The Peshmerga militia killed three Daesh suicide bombers who attempted to infiltrate their locations in Dawasa village, 60 km (37 miles) north of Mosul near Mosul Dam, a Kurdish source says. The militia stopped ten suicide attacks on their forces in Zumar, 70 km (43.5 miles) north of Mosul. [Mada]
Makhmur
Peshmerga fighters stopped a heavy Daesh attack on their positions in Gwer, 70 km east of Mosul, killing 25 attackers, according to an unnamed source in Ninewa. [Mada]
Daesh says it attacked Peshmerga locations in Aski and Gwer. Three suicide terrorists started the attack and four other fighters continued the battle, killing or wounding many Kurdish fighters, destroying the Kurdish positions. [Dump]
Other Governorates
SOUTHERN IRAQ
A Sistani representative in Kerbala hailed the victories in Sinjar and expressed sorrow over yesterday’s fighting between Kurdish and Shia Turkmen forces in Salahuddin, saying it was “inexcusable” and calling for them instead to point their weapons at their “common enemy”. [Mada]
Demonstrators took to the streets in five southern Iraqi governorates (Najaf, Babel, Kerbala, Wasit, Diwaniya) demanding further reforms. [Sumaria]
DaeshDaily comment: We can see that the demonstrations demanding reforms are attracting fewer protestors by the week.
REPORTS FROM TURKEY
Turkish officials say Turkish security arrested Aine Lesley David, a Daesh member and a colleague of the infamous so-called “Jihadi John.” [IraqPress]
The Cihan agency writes that Turkish authorities make announcements when they capture Daesh suspects, only to keep silent when they are released. Twenty suspects were arrested recently, 9 of whom were immediately released, with a further 11 released by the court. Two of the 11 were Russian citizens who were sent back to their country. The opposition in Turkey says Daesh has many sleeper cells in Turkey and none of its members have been arrested so far. [Cihan]
REPORTS FROM SYRIA
Northeast
The Democratic Syrian Forces issue a statement saying they liberated Al-Hawl with help from the Coalition airpower hours after Sinjar was liberated. The DSF say Daesh supply lines were cut completely in the area. Many Daesh terrorists were killed and three were captured while the rest fled to Shaddadi. The DSF spokesman says they destroyed 57 vehicle bombs so far and they are moving ahead to Shaddadi. Before that, the DSF said they liberated 2 more villages in the area killing 11 terrorists. [BasNews] [BasNews] [Welati] [Hawar]
Three photos from Al-Hawl. [Hawar]
A YPG fighter says a group of Daesh terrorists sneaked into a village in west Kobane by boat and clashed with the YPG forces with no casualties. Daesh also shelled several areas in Kobane. [ARA]
Daesh publishes photos of shelling the YPG in two villages in Raqqa. [JustPaste]
Central and Western Syria
Daesh publishes photos of the battles in Yelda. [JustPaste]
Daesh claims it shot down a Syrian jet between Damascus and Homs. [Dump]
East
Daesh publishes a video of a car bomb attack on the Deir Ez-Zor airport two days ago. [A3maq]
REPORTS FROM OTHER MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Egypt
Libya. Local sources say three Daesh members surrendered to the Council of Mujahidin Derna in Derna and then denounced Daesh. [AfriGate]
DaeshDaily comment. Leaving Daesh to join Al-Qaeda is not such a big step up.
SOCIAL MEDIA SOURCES
Facebook Page of the Day
Al-Shabab Al-Risali (PMFs) page.
Daesh Twitter Accounts of the Day
https://twitter.com/Bo2loz1Gerry
