July 26, 2018
Mass Grave in Raqqa
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
Iraq
Coalition concedes its airstrikes in Iraq, Syria have killed 1,059 civilians since 2014. [..]
Joint Ops Command sets revised anti-Daesh strategy focused on drones, aerial surveillance. [..]
Syria
Another Daesh mass grave found in Raqqa, at the city zoo; 400 people. [..]
Daesh ambush kills 8 Syrian soldiers in Albu Kamal. [..]
Syrian Army makes major gains in SW Syria, in costly campaign. [..]
Vicious Daesh onslaught in Suwayda continues, as deaths top 250. [..]
Other countries
Iran: Soleimani issues latest Iranian threat against US military. [..]
REPORTS FROM IRAQ
NATIONAL NEWS
Anti-Daesh campaign
The Coalition says its airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014 have killed 1,059 civilians since the start of its Inherent Resolve operation, describing this as unintended collateral damage. Other organizations have different numbers, however, like Airwars, which estimates such casualties at 5,637. [InherentResolve]
DaeshDaily comment. The discrepancy, however, is between verified numbers and unverified numbers. The number of civilian deaths is much higher than 1,059. The question is how many can be blamed on the Coalition, recognizing that some people defined elsewhere as “civilians” were in fact working for Daesh, for one example. We have printed (sometimes with comments) many media reports that counted all casualties as civilians.
Joint Operations Command set a new plan to pursue Daesh cells in liberated areas that includes more use of drones to locate these cells, starting in Kirkuk and Diyala. Field sources say the plan would save effort and time, and will improve the military output considerably. Sources say aerial reconnaissance is a major part o the intelligence effort , especially in wide open areas like deserts, sources say. [Sumaria]
DaeshDaily comment. It’s about time more effort was put into aerial surveillance, as we have repeatedly commented. It almost seems like some people involved in this plan were reading the comments.
BAGHDAD
Security-related incidents reported
North (Tarmiya, Taji, etc.)
A security source says unidentified gunmen with silenced guns on a motorcycle shot a civilian dead in Saba’ Al-Bor, in Tarmiya District. [Sumaria]
East (Sadr City, New Baghdad, etc.)
A security source says an IED exploded in Al-Mashtal in east Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two others. [Sumaria]
Daesh says it killed an Iraqi officer and wounded two other soldiers with a sticky IED in the Mashtal area.
West (Ghazaliya, Abu Ghraib, etc.)
Baghdad Operations Command says army units found 4 IEDs and an explosives cache in Saadan in Abu Ghraib District and Ma’amir in south Baghdad[Rudaw]
Total Baghdad incidents reported: 3 (Includes only incidents reported)
Total IED incidents reported: 2
ANBAR
Falluja
Security Media Center says a search campaign working in a Falluja garage destroyed an IED and cleared over 200 m2 from explosives. 15 ammonium nitrate containers were found in Matari and additional IEDs in Albu Dhiab (northwest Ramadi) and Trebil (Jordanian border). [Ghad]
Daesh says it damaged the house of an IFP member with an IED in Falluja city, on Tuesday. [ICDNJul26]
Ramadi
Daesh says it killed 20 Iraqi soldiers, wounded seven others, and destroyed their bus with 2 IEDs on the 90 Road, west of Ramadi. [A3maq]
Al-Qa’im
The Security Media Center says Jazeera Operations Command units destroyed a Daesh safehouse, 21 anti-tank mines, and a Katyusha rocket in the Saada area in Al-Qa’im. [Etejah]
SALAHUDDIN
Salahuddin Operations Command says the total number of IDP families returning to their homes areas is up to 160,852 in Salahuddin as of Thursday. [Ghad]
Baiji
Salahuddin Operations Command says its units discovered 63 IEDS during search campaigns in various parts of the province, 60 of them near the Baiji -Siniya oil pipeline. All IEDs were destroyed on site. [Ghad]
Tikrit
Daesh says it killed two Iraqi Army members with an IED east of Tikrit, on Tuesday. [A3maq]
A security source says two IEDs planted on the Baghdad-Tikrit Road in the Diba’i area were defused. Another was found on the roadside in Rashidiya in northeast Baghdad. [IraqPress]
Southern Salahuddin (Balad, Dujail)
Security Media Center says army units found 3 IEDs in Ishaqi, in Balad. [Ghad]
DIYALA
Northern Diyala (Kifri, Khanaqin, etc.)
Daesh says it wounded four Iraqi soldiers and destroyed their Humvee with an IED in Albu Harush village, west of Udhaim, on Wednesday. [A3maq]
Daesh says it killed two Iraqi soldiers, wounded others, and destroyed their Humvee with an IED in the Albu Eissa area, west of Udhaim, on Wednesday. [A3maq]
KIRKUK
Hawija (Riyadh, Al-Zab, etc.)
A security source says Daesh initiated an attack on the Tribal Mobilization in a village southwest of Hawija, wounding 3 of them. [SotIraq]
Southwest (Daquq, Rashad, etc.)
The Security Media Center said that IFP units destroyed 5 Daesh safehouses and 19 IEDs and captured 2 suspects in an ongoing search in the Daquq area. [AIN]
NINEWA
Mosul
Security Media Center says military intelligence in the army 16th division arrested a Daesh operative trying to escape from the west side of Mosul to the east side. [PressIraq]
Western Ninewa
Tal Afar
Security Media Center says army units in Tal Afar Province located 5 mortar shells, an IED, and locally made rockets hidden in Wadi Al-Salih; cleared 318 houses and 6 IEDs in the Tal Al-Qasr residential complex; and found 80 IEDs in Ayonat Al-Alaq. [IraqPress]
Army units found an IED in Ashiq village. [Ghad]
KURDISTAN NEWS
ERBIL
Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily, published in London says one of the Daesh attackers on the Erbil governorate office was closely related to the Masoud Barzani family, and had brothers working in Kurdish security and the Peshmerga. It says Rahil Mohammed Rustom Musa was influenced by a hard-line mosque sheikh in Erbil, who was recently arrested. [Etejah]
The US Senate voted to allocate US $290 million to support the Peshmerga, out of the total of US $850 million allocated to support the Iraqi Army. Wording in the bill says this is due to the positive role of Peshmerga in the Coalition campaign against Daesh . [Rudaw]
Turkish Army says its planes attacked the Kharok area in northern Iraqi Kurdistan near the Turkish border, while the PKK military arm says it killed 37 Turkish troops . [Rudaw]
REPORTS FROM TURKEY
The HPG (PKK) media center says it killed 33 Turkish soldiers in an attack on a military convoy in Pasay and Sirnak in southeastern Turkey. [Hawar]
DaeshDaily comment. Even if you discount the boastful numbers to some extent, the number of people dying in this senseless tit for tat between the Turkish Army and HPG is growing rapidly. Adding this story to the previous one, the HPG claims to have killed 70 soldiers in one day. An unknown number of HPG soldiers died in the airstrikes.
REPORTS FROM SYRIA
Political opposition
Reuters believes that President Bashar Al-Assad is not in a hurry to negotiate with the SDF, who are willing to start a dialogue to protect their accomplishments of the past seven years in view of the Turkish threat and uncertainty of the US positions. Observers believe that recent military gains made the Syrian President more relaxed and comfortable. [Dorar]
Foreign policy
United States
Senator Marco Rubio, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says the PYD/YPG is becoming a renegade organization. However, he expects the Syrian government to develop a relationship with this group so as to attract Kurdish support. This will be an issue for Turkey.
Rubio also says that confronting Daesh is the only common goal of the US and Russia in Syria, whereas the two nations have different perspectives on Syrian unity, natural gas, access to oil, and human rights issues. [Anadolu]
Jordan
Jordan’s Foreign Minister says Jordan has no interaction with the Syrian government, except for security channels of communication in border areas. He says this goes for all neighboring countries, and not only Syria, where Jordanian national interest is the main driver for all its actions. [Dorar]
Northeast (Hasaka, Raqqa)
Raqqa
Raqqa city & district
The Rapid Response team of the Reconstruction Committee of Raqqa Civil Council says it recovered 400 bodies, mostly civilians, from a mass grave in the city zoo. Earlier, 550 bodies were recovered from Rasheed stadium, 120 from the traffic park, 60 from the White Park, and 70 from the Martyrs Park. [BasNews]
Daesh says it destroyed an SDF vehicle with an IED east of the maternity hospital in Raqqa, on Tuesday, wounding the fighters inside. [ICDNJul26]
Daesh says it killed an SDF “collaborator” with a sticky IED in Ratla town, south of Raqqa. [A3maq]
North Raqqa (Ayn Eissa, Tal Abyad, etc.)
Daesh says it killed five SDF fighters and destroyed their SUV with an IED near Irtiwaziya village, in Suluk, on Wednesday. [A3maq]
Central and west
Idlib
The Telegraph says British experts are training paramedics from Idlib to deal with chemical attacks, in anticipation of possible government attacks on that area. [Dorar]
Latakia
An IED near Turkmen Mountain in Latakia killed two Syrian soldiers. [Hawar]
East (Deir Ez-Zor)
Mayadin District
Daesh says it beheaded an SDF member in Shinan village, southeast of Al-Omar oilfield. [ICDNJul26]
Albu Kamal District
SOHR says Daesh killed 8 Syrian soldiers in an ambush in the desert area southeast of Albu Kamal The area is witnessing continued fighting between Daesh and the Syrian Army and has left significant casualties on both sides. [SyriaHR]
Daesh publishes photos of targeting Syrian Army positions in Al-Sayal village, near Albu Kamal, with 2 SPG9 rockets. [ICDNJul26]
South
Daraa/Quneitra
SOHR says Syrian Army is advancing in Yarmouk Basin under heavy artillery and air cover, capturing over 22 towns and villages in the past 24 hours in Yarmouk Basin and southern Quneitra. The Syrian campaign attack started a week ago. [SyriaHR]
SOHR reported considerable advances in Yarmouk Basin for the Syrian army against Daesh affiliate Jaish Khaled. It says the Syrian Army captured important locations and has reduced Jaish Khaled’s control area to 10 villages. It says that Jaish Khaled has lost 141 fighters battle while 62 soldiers and officers of the Syrian Army have also died. [SyriaHR]
Syrian troops captured the village of Ayn Dhikr, and moved into direct contact with Jaish Khaled fighters in Tasil. [Qasioun]
Syrian troops deployed at the Al-Alam roundabout in Quneitra and other parts of the city. The troops also entered Hamidiya village 3 km (2 miles) north of Quneitra. [Qasioun]
Russia’s Ministry of Defense says Daesh is trying to instigate Israel to attack the Syrian Army. It says gunmen are firing at Israeli territories from Nafi’a and Shajra villages, near the Golan Heights, to draw responses against the Syrian side. [Dorar]
Suwayda
Daesh executed 20 Syrian and affiliated militia troops in Suwayda. Daesh says it killed over 150 Syrian soldiers in the recent battles north and east of Suwayda. [Qasioun]
Media sources say the final account of the wave of the Daesh attacks on Suwayda is 250 killed and 200 wounded. Daesh initiated three attacks with explosives belts followed by attacks with rockets and hand grenades on three areas in the city. [Qasioun]
Daesh says it attacked Syrian Army and allied militias in several areas in Suwayda province. It also said it attacked government forces on the Suwayda-Damascus road and ambushed military reinforcement units. It says it killed 140 soldiers, wounded “tens,” and destroyed 4 vehicles. [ICDNJul26]
Daesh publishes photos of beheading captured government soldiers and “loyalists” in the Suwayda area. Daesh [ICDNJul25] [ICDNJul25]
OTHER MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA REPORTS
Neighboring countries
Iran
Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, warned President Donald Trump that the Red Sea is not a safe area for US military presence, saying in a speech in Hamdan that the “the Guards, Al-Quds Corps, and the Iranian Army is closer to you than you may believe.” [ZamanAlwasl]
DaeshDaily comment. To all the US military men among our readers who are shaking in their boots from all these threatening remarks by Iranian leaders, please raise your hands. Whatever attacks may be perpetrated by Iranian forces that are “closer than you may believe,” the retaliatory US attack will show that Iran is not located far enough from the scene to get away with them.
Saudi Arabia/Yemen
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it considers Houthi attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as a serious breach of international conventions and freedom of navigation. Cairo demanded that the international community play a positive role in enforcing law and order in Yemen. [Anadolu]
North Africa
Egypt
Daesh says it destroyed 2 Egyptian Army bulldozers with 2 IEDs south of Arish, on Tuesday, killing or wounding the soldiers inside. It also says it damaged an M60 tank with rocket, south of Arish. [A3maq] [ICDNJul26]
Tunisia
The National Guards of Aryanah Province arrested a 20 year old suspect and found videos and posts on his mobile phones supporting terrorism and radical thought. He will be put on trial on charges of supporting terrorism. [Tunisien]
REPORTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
AFRICA
Ethiopia
Ethiopian Federal Police say the manager of the Renaissance Dam project was shot dead Thursday morning while in his car. Investigations are yet to reveal more information. [Anadolu]
ASIA
Afghanistan
Kabul Police says a suicide attacker detonated himself in the Kampani area in Kabul ,targeting an envoy of Afghani intelligence and killing four and wounding six others. The attack was claimed by the Taliban. [Rudaw]
Daesh says it killed four US Army “spies” (Afghans) in Manogai, in Kunar, on Wednesday. [A3maq]
Daesh says it shot a US “collaborator” in the Ghani Khel area, in Nangarhar. [ICDNJul26]
Daesh says it detonated an IED near the house of a parliament member in District 1 in Jalalabad, on Wednesday, wounding two of his bodyguards. [A3maq]
DAESH MEDIA
Daesh issues a propaganda video about the battles in south Syria. [ICDNJul26]
Daesh publishes a photo of one of its terrorists, saying he was killed in Syria. [ICDNJul26]
