January 24, 2018
Afrin (RT)
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
Iraq
IHEC declares 24,000,000 Iraqis eligible to vote in election. [..]
Anbar tribal leaders hold security conference in Ramadi. [..]
Daesh ambushes IFP-PMF convoy in Hawija. [..]
Ninewa Police likely to replace PMFs as Mosul security force. [..]
Mosul manager says 9-11,000 people died in Mosul conflict. [..]
Syria
Erdogan refuses Trump’s request to de-escalate Afrin conflict. [..]
Tillerson proposes that Turks accept a 19-mile security zone in NW Syria. [..]
Syria’s chemical weapons use in Eastern Ghouta reaches UN, as US blames Russia. [..]
Turkey’s Foreign Minister threatens to target Manbij next. [..]
SOHR says Daesh has retaken 80 villages in Idlib, Hama, Aleppo it previously lost. [..]
SDF, Coalition still battling Daesh in Albu Kamal. [..]
Other countries
Kurds in France, Germany protest Turkey’s Afrin invasion. [..]
Daesh stages deadly attack on Save the Children in Afghanistan. [..]
REPORTS FROM IRAQ
NATIONAL NEWS
World Economic Forum
The large annual gathering of world political and other leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is underway.
Wednesday, Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and Jordanian King Abdullah II, at the Forum. According to Al-Abadi’s office, he and King Abdallah discussed the bilateral relations between Iraq and Jordan and ways to strengthen them. [Sumaria]
Also in Davos, German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen reiterated Germany’s support for Iraq’s unity, and confirmed the continuity of training for the Iraqi military. [Sumaria]
A Rudaw report said that KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi met in Davos on Wednesday. [Rudaw]
Barzani also met with the Armenian Prime Minister, Mr. Karen Karapetyan. [Rudaw]
Anti-Daesh Campaign
Tuesday, the British newspaper “The Sun” reported that Daesh leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, has fled Iraq to a remote hide-out in Africa where he hopes to revive the fortunes of his organization. [Arabi21]
DaeshDaily comment. As Daesh Daily readers know, we maintain our skepticism about all these Baghdadi whereabouts reports, none of which have panned out so far.
A French media outlet reported from an unnamed source that there are nearly 40 French nationals, both male and female, in detention camps or in prisons in Iraq and Syria, including 20 children. [Sumaria]
Wednesday, Special Researcher Pekka Hiltunen from the Finnish Security Intelligence Service said that the number of Finnish nationals who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Daesh may be 10-20 percent greater than expected (about 100 in total). [Knooz]
Reconstruction
Wednesday, Iraqi Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Othman Al-Ghanmi met with his Kuwaiti counterpart, General Mohammed Al-Khader, and US CENTCOM Commander General Joseph Votel, in Kuwait. [Rudaw]
CoR Speaker Salim Al-Jubouri spoke Wednesday at the grand opening of the Governance and Decentralization conference in Baghdad, where he said that the decentralized federal system has not yet reached the necessary level in Iraq despite the advances it has made. He called for developing the human frameworks needed to implement the idea of decentralization, and for enacting the laws and regulations that will guarantee it. [BasNews]
Election
Wednesday, the Independent High Electoral Commission announced that 24 million people are eligible to vote in May. The registration data of 11 million of those voters has been updated electronically. [Rudaw]
Wednesday, Iraqi President Fuad Masoum approved the first amendment to the CoR election law, passed by the CoR on Monday. [Rudaw]
PMF Commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis issued statements expressing pride that the PMF organization established a military system in 4 years that is on par with a 97-year old institution, namely the Iraqi Army. Al-Muhandis threatened a “security war” against Daesh and members of the Baath Party. This statement comes a week after the political alliance between the PMF leaders and Al-Abadi fell apart, as Al-Abadi moves to withdraw the PMF from liberated cities and to put the MoD in sole charge of security in those areas. [AlAraby]
DaeshDaily comment. This sounds like a political strategy unfolding. The new party formed around the PMF leaders will seek voter support by claiming credit for winning the war. This will necessarily be an exaggeration, as larger credit belongs to the CTS, IFP, and other forces, and to the Coalition, and of course to Al-Abadi, but the PMF soldiers and their families are a very large constituency, and proud of their contributions to the country. Al-Abadi’s main claim to public support is his leadership of the successful war effort, which included the PMFs. Rhetoric that attempts to shift the credit to the PMFs is intended to marginalize Al-Abadi’s role in the victory.
Iraq-KRG Issues
Wednesday KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani met with UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, in Davos and discussed the latest developments on the talks between Baghdad and Erbil. [BasNews]
According to a source close to the Iraqi government, the negotiations between the Iraqi government and the KRG have made progress. The source said that the talks focused on the KRG’s share of the federal budget, the KRG employee salaries, and border crossings and airports. The source added that the KRG provided several proposals which are being studied by government committees. KDP CoR member Ashwaq Jaff said that KRG officials presented 9 proposals to Prime Minister Al-Abadi intended to resolve disputes concerning the 2018 budget. [BasNews]
Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, Mahdi Al-Allaq, stated that Baghdad is not bound by the contracts signed between the huge Russian energy company Rosneft and the KRG, according to Sputnik. In February 2017, Rosneft announced that it signed an agreement with the Kurdistan Region to purchase crude oil, expressing hope that it would find new markets for Kurdish oil. [Sumaria]
Wednesday, Vice President Osama Al-Nujaifi reiterated that the disputes between Baghdad and Erbil must be resolved constitutionally. This means that the rights of the Kurdistan Region must be respected just as Kurdistan respects Iraq’s constitutional rights.
Nujaifi emphasized that the Kurds “welcomed us in their home during hardship and we will never forget that.” He said that the focus must remain on the elections, promising the people of Mosul that past mistakes will be addressed by choosing more suitable candidates. [Rudaw]
DaeshDaily comment. More suitable candidates than whom? Nujaifi’s brother Atheel was fired from his position as Ninewa Governor by the CoR after helping to lose Mosul to Daesh during his watch, and then clearly established himself as a Ninewa separatist in collusion with Masoud Barzani and Recep Erdogan.
BAGHDAD
Security-related incidents reported
Center (Rusafa, Karkh, etc.)
Wednesday, the MoD announced the arrest of two suspects in possession of red mercury in Rusafa. [Ghad]
Monday the General Directorate of Intelligence and Security announced the arrest of 2 terrorists as they tried to enter Baghdad from the Al-Tahaddi checkpoint in Rusafa . [Ghad]
North (Tarmiya, Taji, etc.)
Daesh says its snipers killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded another in Tarmiya on Tuesday. [A3maq]
South (Dora, Yusufiyah, Mahmudiya, etc.)
Wednesday, the Baghdad Operations Command announced that security units found a Daesh explosives and IED depots in Khawaled, Rakoub, and Kadhim Athan. The depots contained 4 Katyusha rockets, 10 grenade launchers, and various mortar shells. 22 more IEDs left behind by Daesh were destroyed in Ma’amir. [Ghad]
Total Baghdad incidents reported: 4 (Includes only incidents reported)
Total IED incidents reported: 1
ANBAR
Ramadi
Wednesday, the Anbar tribes held a conference in Ramadi with the purpose of support the military and police in maintaining security following recent security breaches. They called for removing Daesh families from their cities, and for the return of “Al-Sahwat” (Sahwa units) to the governorate. [BaghdadToday]
DaeshDaily comment. It will be long remembered that tribal Sahwa fighters working with the US Marines saved Anbar from Al-Qaeda during the sectarian violence days.
SALAHUDDIN
Baiji
A DaeshDaily source says armed men in pickup vehicles shot and killed a commander in Kata’eb Al-Imam Ali, a Shia PMF group, as he was driving his vehicle near Siniya.
Tikrit
Wednesday, the General Directorate of Intelligence and Security reported that an IED was found on a roadside in Albu Ajil in Tikrit. [Ghad]
DIYALA
Baquba/Southeast Diyala
Wednesday, the Diyala Police announced that units from the Baquba and Buhriz police and the Diyala Police Emergency units arrested 3 wanted suspects on criminal and terrorism charges. The Diyala Police also stated that two other wanted suspects were captured with a quantity of drugs and guns in Baquba. [Etejah]
KIRKUK
Hawija (Riyadh, Al-Zab, etc.)
Daesh says a group of its terrorists ambushed a joint IFP-PMF convoy in Gharib village, west of Hawija city, killing four IFP and PMF members and wounding others, including the Abbasi PMF commander and 2 other commanders, and destroying 5 SUVs before returning safely. [ICDNJan24] [A3maq]
A DaeshDaily source says the commander was wounded when a suicide bomber attacked the commander’s vehicle.
Wednesday evening, the IFP and PMF thwarted a Daesh attack on Gharib village in Hawija, killing all members of the group, according to a security source. [BaghdadToday]
Wednesday, a security source in Kirkuk reported that 6 Daesh members were killed in a PMF security operation in Al-Zab subdistrict. [Sumaria]
NINEWA
Wednesday, it was reported that Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi intends to issue important military decisions on Wednesday, one of them being that the Ninewa Police will take over protecting the areas from which the government PMFs and tribal PMFs are withdrawing, according to the Okaz newspaper. [Sumaria]
Wednesday, State of Law representative Mohammed Al-Sayhoud warned that the local police cannot be relied on to maintain security in Mosul. He added that withdrawing the PMF will mean the return of Daesh the following day. He emphasized the need to rely on the PMF and Islamic resistance factions to maintain the security of liberated governorates. He also said that the local police forces, with their large numbers, fled in the face of a mere 500 Daesh members in 2014 and surrendered the city. [IkhNews]
Mosul
According to Mosul’s municipality chief Abdul Sattar al-Habu, between 9,000 and 11,000 people were killed in Mosul, which closely matches data from official sources. Al-Habu said that the Mosul government received nearly 9,000 applications from residents concerning missing relatives who were last seen in Old Mosul and are believed to be buried under the rubble. [SotIraq][CNN]
Wednesday, Sumaria published a video report warning of possible pollution of the air and water along the Tigris River due to the decaying bodies of Daesh members. According to Sumaria, the IEDs still in the alleyways prevent the municipal teams from reaching the bodies. Sumaria added that if the Tigris River is polluted, it would be impossible to purify the water, as the purification stations in the area were destroyed by Daesh during the nine months of fighting to liberate Mosul. [Sumaria]
Wednesday, Captain Khaled Salem of the Ninewa Police reported that the local police found 5 bodies of civilian men in their thirties who appear to have been tortured and killed with bullets to the head and chest near the Mosul airport. [BasNews]
A DaeshDaily source says the Ninewa Police captured 22 Daesh terrorists in a raid on several houses in Hay Al-Zahra, in east Mosul.
Wednesday, the people of Mosul publicly celebrated the 1st anniversary of the liberation of the eastern side of the city from Daesh. [Knooz]
Southern Ninewa
Hammam Al-Alil
Wednesday, Ninewa Police Commander Watheq Al-Hamadani reported the arrest of 9 Daesh members in the security operation carried out by the Ninewa Police, Iraqi Army, and security services in a neighborhood south of Mosul city as part of the ongoing operations south of Mosul. Al-Hamadani added that this incident comes a day after 23 terrorists were killed on islands in the Tigris River near Nimrud in southwestern Hamdaniya across from Qayara (as reported yesterday in Daesh Daily). [BasNews] [Buratha]
Hatra
A DaeshDaily source says several Kata’eb Hezbollah members were killed or wounded in clashes with Daesh terrorists who were hiding in a valley south of Hatra.
Western Ninewa
Sinjar
Iraqi media outlets published reports that Turkey is seeking to carry out a military operation in Sinjar, with participation from the Iraqi government (as reported skeptically in yesterday’s Daesh Daily). Leader of Peshmerga operations in Sinjar, Qassem Darbo, stressed that the Peshmerga refuses to return Sinjar into a battlefield and therefore has repeatedly called on the PKK to withdraw its soldiers from Sinjar. [BasNews]
DaeshDaily comment. We see no reason why Iraq would willingly participate in such a campaign, which would only validate the presence of the Turks in Iraq that Al-Abadi wants to remove. Turkey’s motive is the usual animus against the PKK, but goes beyond just removing a small number of PKK fighters in Sinjar, many of whom have apparently redeployed to the northwest Syria front. The Peshmerga, i.e., KDP motive is still to take Sinjar away from Iraq and add it to (a preferably independent) Kurdistan, notwithstanding that it is not contiguous with Kurdistan. Barzani has already put a claim on it. This would also suit Turkey’s desires.
KURDISTAN NEWS
ERBIL
Wednesday, Masoud Barzani met with KDP CoR members at the Salahuddin resort near Erbil. Barzani reiterated that the referendum was a “natural, legal, and constitutional right of the Kurdish nation.” Barzani gave an overview of the political situation in Iraq and the election process in the CoR. [BasNews]
Wednesday, Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC), Masrour Barzani reiterated that the KRG calls for the application of all of the Iraqi constitution’s articles, especially Article 140, during a meeting with the Australian Ambassador in Iraq, Christopher Langman. Langman reiterated Australia’s support to the Kurdistan Region and its constitutional rights. He also expressed hope for the Iraqi and Kurdish elections to be held successfully and to mark a new beginning to resolving outstanding disputes between Baghdad and Erbil. [BasNews]
Wednesday, the Ministry of the Peshmerga announced its decision to merge the first and second infantry brigades of the Peshmerga. [BasNews]
REPORTS FROM TURKEY
Anadolu reported that Turkish authorities arrested the head of the Daesh “Health Diwan,” an Iraqi national, in addition to 13 others in a security operation in Şanlıurfa. Anadolu claims that the group was smuggled into Turkey with the knowledge of the PKK, the “military arm” of the KDP, and the Union of Kurdish Societies/Communities. According to Turkish security sources, among the captured terrorists were 7 Algerians, 2 Syrians, 2 Iraqis (including the “health minister”), a Dutch national, a British national of Moroccan origin, and an Egyptian. [Sumaria]
Wednesday, Turkish TV sources announced that 8 people were wounded, 2 of them critically, by a Kurdish unit rocket (presumably from Afrin) that struck a mosque in Kilis city. [Sumaria]
REPORTS FROM SYRIA
NATIONAL NEWS
United States and Turkey. President Trump has asked Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan to “de-escalate” the conflict in the northwest province of Afrin.
However, in a statement issued by the Information Office of the Turkish Presidency after a phone call between Erdogan and Trump, Erdogan says he stressed the need for Washington to stop its support for the “terrorist” PYD/YPG in Syria and stressed the need for bilateral cooperation between Ankara and Washington in the fight against terrorism. [Anadolu]
Erdogan says that operations in Syria “will continue until the last terrorist has been eliminated from those terrorists who have been supplied with 5,000 trucks and 2,000 aircraft loaded with weapons in the last few years,” referring to the Coalition’s support of the PYD which Turkey considers to be a branch of the PKK. [Dorar] [Arabi21]
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that his US counterpart Rex Tillerson presented a new proposal on Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, suggesting a 30 km (19 mile) security zone in Syria to meet Ankara’s security concerns. Tillerson suggested that 30 km is a safe distance to protect Turkey against terrorist attacks. [Dorar]
Pentagon Spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the US military is helping to arm groups in Syria “to stabilize areas liberated from ISIS,” stressing that any group that says “hey, we’ll no longer fight ISIS and we are going to support our brothers in Afrin” will cease to be a Coalition partner and receive US arms. [SyriaNow] [Sott]
International reactions. Leader of Germany’s Left Party, Sahra Wagenknecht, demanded that German troops be withdrawn from the NATO base in Konya, Turkey, in response to the Turkish “aggression” in Afrin. She also called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to stop exporting German arms to Turkey immediately. [Hawar]
Wednesday, dozens of Kurdish political parties, including from the Kurdistan Region, announced their solidarity with Afrin and condemned the Turkish attack. Their statement said that the Turkish attacks on Afrin resemble “genocide.” It added that “those brutal attacks by Turkey on civilians in Afrin are a conspiracy, and it is an extension to the conspiracy executed against south Kurdistan.” The statement added that the signatories will exhaust all means to put pressure on the international community to save Afrin. [BasNews]
United Nations and chemical weapons. According to two Western diplomats on the UN Security Council, Russia is concerned that the US may launch a military strike at the Syrian government over the use of chemical weapons in the attack on eastern Ghouta earlier this week. One of the diplomats said “Russia has asked for this meeting of the Security Council because of its fear that the US may respond militarily to the growing reports of the continued use of chemical gases and toxic substances in Syria.” [Dorar]
US State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert accused Russia of responsibility for the recent chemical attack on eastern Ghouta, saying “whatever the executing agency of the eastern Ghouta attack, Russia is responsible for it. Countless Syrians have been killed as a result of chemical weapons attacks carried out after Russia’s intervention in Syria.” [ZamanAlWasl]
Northwest
Afrin/Azaz
Spokesman of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, Birusk Hasaka, denied the reports about a YPG intention to turn over Afrin to the Syrian government. Al-Mayadeen channel, close to the Syrian government, had published on its website from a “Kurdish source in Afrin” that the YPG welcomes the Syrian Army in Afrin as part of an agreement with the Syrian government. [BasNews]
Wednesday, Al-Mayadeen quoted a Kurdish source as saying that the Kurds welcome any agreement with the Syrian government that allows the Syrian forces to enter Afrin in exchange for the Kurds to be part of the political process in Syria, and then, the Kurdish weapons will be returned to the Syrian government. [ZamanAlWasl]
Qasioun reports that the Turkish forces have succeeded in capturing 7 areas, equal to 8 sq km over the past 72 hours in their military operation. [Qasioun]
SOHR reports clashes between the YPG and Turkish forces concentrated around areas northeast and southwest of Afrin city. [SyriaHR]
In a statement to Reuters on Wednesday, a senior SDF official revealed that “dozens of the American, British and German fighters, who had previously fought in Raqqa, are now in Afrin to counter the Turkish attack.” [Dorar]
According to ANHA local correspondents, clashes are still ongoing between the Turkish forces and the YPG, after the latter carried out two operations against the Turkish forces in the vicinity of Sheikh Eissa town and Sha’ala village in Azaz, killing 7 Turkish soldiers and destroying a tank and an armored vehicle. [Hawar]
Casualties. Wednesday, SOHR reported that since the launch of the Turkish military operation on January 20th, two civilians were killed by the YPG bombardment of Kaljibrin, held by pro-Turkey militiamen, in addition to 30 others, including 8 children and 4 women, who were killed by the Turkish aerial, artillery and rocket bombardment of several locations in Afrin. [SyriaHR]
Wednesday, Co-President of the Afrin Health Council, Angela Rasho, announced that 35 civilians were killed, and around 106 others were wounded by the Turkish forces’ aerial and artillery bombardment of Afrin. [Hawar]
Wednesday, the YPG media center said that the YPG killed a number of Turkish soldiers and destroyed their vehicle in an ambush between Ablah in Azaz and Hazwan village in Al-Bab. [Hawar]
In a statement released on Wednesday, the YPG claimed it had killed at least 203 members of the Turkish forces during the past two days in different locations in Afrin and northern Syria. [Hawar]
Wednesday, Turkey’s Chief of Staff announced that 287 PYD-YPG/PKK/KCK and Daesh terrorists have been “neutralized” since the beginning of Operation Olive Branch. [Anadolu]
Wednesday, Qasioun reported that the pro-Turkey militias, under the cover of the Turkish forces’ shelling, killed 8 YPG members in Afrin. [Qasioun]
Manbij/Jarabulus
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Cavusoglu hinted that Turkey could carry out further operations in Manbij and on the eastern side of the Euphrates, similar to Operation Olive Branch in Syria, saying “we are now targeting terrorist organizations in the Afrin area through the Olive Branch process and we can launch future operations in Manbij and the eastern Euphrates.” He said that “the United States gave us a lot of promises and did not fulfill them, which was clearly stated during my meeting with my American counterpart Rex Tillerson.” He stressed that terrorist organizations had launched attacks on Turkey from Afrin, making Operation Olive Branch a legitimate issue of Turkish national security. [Anadolu]
According to sources in Jarabulus, the Turkish Army withdrew its troops from Jarabulus, still deployed there since Operation Euphrates Shield, and is moving them to Afrin. [Hawar]
Qasioun reported that Russian troops have begun, on Tuesday, withdrawing from the PYG-held areas in southeastern Manbij and Arima to the Syria-held areas in eastern rural Aleppo. [Qasioun]
Northeast (No reports)
Central and West
Aleppo/Idlib
Wednesday, SOHR reported that Daesh has captured at least 80 villages in rural Idlib, Hama and Aleppo, from which it had been previously expelled. This reversal has happened over four consecutive months, since the beginning of October, 2017. [SyriaHR]
Daesh says it killed five Syrian soldiers and captured two others east of Sinjar town in southeastern Idlib. [A3maq] [ICDNJan24]
Daesh issues a video of the two captured soldiers. [A3maq]
Dorar reports that Tahrir Al-Sham “elite forces” carried out a special operation in an area held by the Syrian forces in rural Idlib. [Dorar]
Cross-border sources confirmed to SOHR that a Turkish reconnaissance force entered Syrian territory through the area of Kafr Lusin on the Syrian-Turkish border, where it conducted a reconnaissance tour about 29 km (18 miles) north of Abu Al-Dhuhur Military Airport in eastern Idlib. The convoy surveyed the field and then withdrew towards the border. [SyriaHR]
Wednesday, Qasioun reported that anti-government forces captured more than 20 members of the Syrian forces near the Abu Al-Dhuhur Military Airport. [Qasioun]
Wednesday, SOHR reported that violent clashes, accompanied by mutual shelling, are still ongoing between a combination of Tahrir Al-Sham and other opposition militias and the Syrian government troops, following the Syrian forces’ capture of a village to the west of the Abu Al-Dhuhur airport. [SyriaHR]
Wednesday, the Syrian Civil Defense Agency reported that Russian warplanes launched 3 airstrikes with vacuum and cluster bombs on a town in western rural Idlib, killing 8 civilians and wounding 12 others. [EnabBaladi] [Anadolu]
Daesh sources issue a leaked recording of a voice message from an opposition leader in Gaziantep. The leader says he just finished a meeting with the “Europeans” and an agreement had been reached to end all battles and airstrikes in the Idlib area “within days”, and international organizations will be there soon. He says the negotiations are linked to the Turkish advances in Afrin. By the end of the message, he says that he would meet with the “Canadians” the same day. [ICDNJan24]
East (Deir Ez-Zor)
Albu Kamal
Daesh issues a video of the results of “American” bombing on a hospital in Al-Sha’afa town yesterday. [A3maq]
Daesh says 14 people, including seven women, were killed in the airstrikes. [A3maq]
A DaeshDaily source says SDF units captured the Al-Mariya neighborhood in Gharanij. The source says Daesh terrorists withdrew from the area because of the lack of weapons and supplies.
Wednesday, Hawar reported that the SDF foiled Daesh attacks on the SDF positions in Gharanij and Hajin, killing 6 Daesh members and destroying 8 drilling trucks. [Hawar]
Daesh says it killed three SDF fighters and wounded another with an IED east of Baghouz village. [A3maq]
Daesh says it destroyed a Humvee and an SUV with 2 rockets northeast of Abu Hassan village, south of Hajin. [A3maq]
South
Damascus/Rif Damashq
Daesh publishes photos of making food for its terrorists, south of Damascus. [ICDNJan24]
A DaeshDaily source says Daesh launched an attack on Ahrar Al-Sham near Daraa and captured several fighters.
OTHER MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA REPORTS
North Africa
Egypt
Daesh says it destroyed a vehicle and damaged 4 others, all belonging to Egyptian Army and police, with several IEDs south of Arish. [A3maq]
Libya/Tunisia
The Libyan Information Office of the Central Security Room in Benghazi announced that five special forces soldiers were wounded and one soldier was killed in yesterday’s bombing near the Radwan Mosque in Benghazi. [AfriGate]
The Tunisian National Unit for Research on Terrorist Crimes of the National Guard in El-Aouina was able to identify a cell responsible for supporting members of the Daesh affiliate “Jund Al-Khalifa” with clothing and raw materials used to manufacture explosives. Two suspects were arrested in Tunis and admitted to having adopted Daesh ideology. [Tunisien]
Algeria
Algerian security sources reported that 2 Daesh members were tracked in the vicinity of the Constantine Governorate in eastern Algeria. The police circulated the description of one of the presumed suicide attackers. Algerian and Tunisian security officials revealed that a message was sent from Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb states to Tunisian groups. [ArabsToday]
REPORTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
U.S./EUROPE
United States
In December, Global Research revealed that the US “operates and/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases worldwide,” with 6 bases in Iraq, as reported by Sumaria. [Sumaria] [GlobalResearch]
Germany
Deutsche Welle News reported that Kurdish demonstrators in Germany, protesting the Turkish aggression on Afrin, attacked Turkish passengers as they disembarked from their flights at the Hanover Airport on Monday. [DW]
France
Last Sunday, authorities in France arrested 7 supporters of what the semi-official Anadolu called the “terrorist PYD/PKK” organization during a demonstration in Marseille to protest against Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch in Syria, according to the France 3 television channel. [Anadolu]
DaeshDaily comment. The sanitized version of this story is that Kurds in France protested against Turkey’s invasion. Note that the independent German news service behind the above story referred simply to “Kurdish demonstrators.” A lot of Kurds live in Western Europe, and such demonstrations are not surprising.
ASIA
Afghanistan
Daesh’s A3maq reported that Daesh claimed the attack on the Save the Children office in Jalal Abad on Wednesday, which killed at least 4 people, according to Afghan officials. [Aawsat]
Officials said that 4 gunmen stormed an office of the Save the Children aid agency in Afghanistan Wednesday, killing at least 5 people and wounding 25, not including the assailants. Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the attack began with a suicide car bomb outside the site in the city of Jalalabad, followed by gunmen entering the compound and fighting Afghan special forces. He also said “There was a blast and the target was Save the Children.” Then “Attackers entered the compound.”
Authorities said three Save the Children employees were killed, including one guard, as well as a member of the Afghan security forces and a shopkeeper. In addition to the suicide bomber, who blew himself up, 4 gunmen were shot by security forces. Witnesses said at least some of them were in police uniform, a commonly used tactic. [NBC]
Daesh’s version says it killed or wounded 100 people in its attack in Jalalabad. It says it detonated a vehicle bomb near the location of British and Swedish organizations, then 3 of its suicide terrorists continued the attack with explosive vests, IEDs, personal guns, and rockets. Daesh says the attack targeted 2 government officers, a communication center owned by a Shia businessman, and the two organizations “that work on Christianization.” [A3maq]
Wednesday, the Afghan police killed a suicide attacker before he was able to attack a troop carrier in Marja, in Helmand Province. [Ghad]
Daesh says it killed 8 Taliban fighters and wounded 10 others in clashes in Bilchiragh, in southern Faryab Province, on Tuesday. [A3maq]