sicuroims iraq daily - 15 june

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SicuroIMS Reports

Subject: SicuroIMS Reports: Daily Fast Facts Iraq

Incident Review | 15 June 2014A member of Sicuro Group LLC

Clashes

14-06-2014Attack on Iraqi cleric convoy kills eight guards in Ishaqi

Location : Ishaqi, Salahaddin

Incident summary : Gunmen attacked the convoy of the deputy head of Iraq’s Shi’ite religious endowmenton Saturday resulting in hours- long clashes and 8 guards being killed and 10 wounded.

Sheikh Sami al-Massudi said his convoy was ambushed near Ishaqi, as it made its way toSamarra. Ishaqi was retaken from militants on Saturday.

Gunmen were hiding in farmland next to the road, and opened fire on the convoy withmachineguns and sniper rifles. The fighting lasted from Saturday morning into theafternoon.

The endowment is a major organisation that manages Shi'ite religious sites in Iraq.

Real-time incidents: Verified

14-06-2014100 security members clash with ISIL trying to take over Tikrit air base

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Location : Tikrit

Incident summary : 100 security forces clashes with ISIL insurgents on Saturday at the Speicher Air Forcebase in Tikrit.

The insurgents surrounded the base with the security forces inside. Clashes were stillongoing as of Saturday afternoon.


14-06-2014Peshmerga kill 2 ISIL fighters in checkpoint clash

Location : Tajneed area, Jalawlaa district, north east Baquba

Incident summary : A force from the Peshmerga killed two ISIL elements of northeastern Baquba onSaturday in clashes erupting from ISIL insurgents attacking a security checkpoint inTajneed area of Jalawlaa district of northeastern Baquba.


14-06-2014Clashes in Muqdadiya and Udhaim as rebels close in on Baghdad

Location : Muqdadiya and Udhaim, Diyala

Incident summary : A force from the Peshmerga killed two ISIL elements of northeastern Baquba onSaturday in clashes erupting from ISIL insurgents attacking a security checkpoint inTajneed area of Jalawlaa district of northeastern Baquba.


International Intervention

14-06-2014US sends warship to Gulf, Iran prepared to help fight insurgents

Incident summary : The US ordered an aircraft carrier, the USS George HW Bush into the Gulf in caseWashington decides to pursue a military option to fight the Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

Ships like the USS George H.W. Bush, which are equipped with sophisticated anti-shipand anti-aircraft missiles, are often used to launch airstrikes, conduct surveillanceflights, do search, rescue, humanitarian and evacuation missions, and conduct seabornesecurity operations, a U.S. defense official said.

Meanwhile, Iran says it could be prepared to work with the US to fight the insurgency.The Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that Iran would contemplatecooperating with the US on restoring security to Iraq if it saw Washington confronting"terrorist groups in Iraq and elsewhere".

This comes a day after President Barack Obama announced, "We will not be sendingU.S. troops back into combat in Iraq".

"Given the nature of these terrorists, it could pose a threat, eventually, to Americaninterests as well," he cautioned.

He said he had asked his national security team to prepare "a range of other options" insupport of Iraqi security forces. "I'll be reviewing those options in the days ahead," headded.


Government Security Response

14-06-2014More than 288 ISIL killed in Salahaddin, Diyala and Anbar

Location : Salahaddin, Diyala and Anbar

Incident summary : In Salah il-Din, Diyala and Anbar, more than 288 ISIL elements were killed in differentsecurity operations, security forces said Saturday.


14-06-2014Ishaqi and most of Salahaddin back in military control

Location : Ishaqi & Salahaddin province

Incident summary : Security forces continued fierce clashes with insurgents on Saturday, managing to regaincontrol of three towns in Salahaddin province.

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Major General Qassim Atta says most of the province has been returned to the controlof the Iraqi military and security forces also took back territory on the edges of Ninevehprovince.

The army also reasserted control over the small town of Ishaqi, southeast of Samarra, tosecure a road that links the city to Baghdad and the cities of Tikrit and Mosul furthernorth.


14-06-2014Iraqi army division merges with Kurdish forces to guard Kirkuk

Location : Kirkuk

Incident summary : An Iraqi army division has joined forces with Kurdish militias in a bid to protect the oil-rich Province of Kirkuk from attacks by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and theLevant, a senior provincial security official in the province said.

Mohammed al-Jibouri of the provincial security commission said the 12th division ofthe Iraqi armed forces was still holding ground in its base in Kirkuk. Kurdish militiasknown as Peshmerga have advanced on Kirkuk following news that Iraqi armed forceshad abandoned their positions in the face of a possible attack on the city by ISIS.However, Jibouri said the Iraqi army division entrusted with defending Kirkuk wasclosely coordinating with Kurdish Peshmerga to repel any such attack by ISIS.“Iraqi army 12th division and Peshmerga forces have formed a joint command and areworking together to secure the provincial borders” of Kirkuk, said Jibouri.

Jibouri said the new joint command center was operating from the headquarters of theIraqi army 12th division. “The security situation in the provinces south of Kirkuk and inthe Province of Kirkuk itself necessitates a joint security effort,” he said. Jibouri deniedreports the division had abandoned its headquarters and that its units had fled.

However, he said certain provincial towns, which reportedly have been overrun by ISIS,were in need of “large military forces to recapture them.” Jibouri also revealed that Iraqitroops were closely coordinating with Kurdish Peshmerga in other districts.He said Peshmerga units were pouring into some areas of Kirkuk in support of the armyto prevent security breaches.

Peshmerga forces had moved into the restive district of Tooz, the district official said.

Another official admitted that ISIS militants had penetrated the province and that theywere in control of part of Baghdad-Kirkuk highway.

Second-hand Source Reporting

Asset Attack

13-06-2014Insurgents control Iraq's largest oil refinery in Bayji

Location : Bayji, Salahaddin

Incident summary : Local workers and Interior officials have confirmed insurgents have seized Iraq’s largestoil refinery in Bayji on Friday.

The Bayji facility processes 320,000 barrels per day and is fully intact, it continues tooperate under orders from the militants.

Insurgents are also in control of the nearby Ajeel oil field according to sources.

The Iraqi government had said it had sent additional forces to secure the refinery, butarmy has largely collapsed before onslaughts by insurgents, deserting en masse andleaving behind weapons depots and arms.


Announcement

14-06-2014Maliki threatens to execute army deserters, vows to defeat rebels

Incident summary : Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on his countrymen to take up arms anddefend the nation regardless of which sect they belong to in a tough address to armyofficers broadcast on state television on Saturday.

Maliki said the cabinet had granted him unlimited powers to confront the fighters fromthe Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated Sunni rebel groups.

"Samarra will not be the last line of defence, but a gathering point and launchpad,"Maliki told officers in the city, which lies about 125km north of the capital on the roadto rebel-controlled Mosul.

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"Within the coming hours, all the volunteers will arrive to support the security forces intheir war against the gangs of ISIL, Maliki, who leads the Shia-dominated government,said. "This is the beginning of the end of them."

Also in the televised address, Maliki threatened to punish army deserters “to theutmost, with punishments that rise to execution.”

A pandemic of desertion seems to be hitting the Iraqi Army as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)advances on their positions, with major cities falling with little opposition as most of thedefenders take off their uniforms, drop their weapons and run away.

Maliki tried to paint this as a positive situation, saying “frankly this was our chance toget rid of those cowards and weaklings,” and that it will result in an improved army inthe long run.


14-06-2014Military spokesman says forces regaining territory north Baghdad

Incident summary : A top Iraqi general and military spokesman said on Sunday that Iraqi forces wereregaining terrortity from insurgents north of Baghdad insisting there is no risk toBaghdad, blaming the media for exaggerating the danger. Other reports from the northindicated howere that fighting was continuing in several places and that insurgents werefully in control of other places.

Gen. Qassim Atta, who is now the official spokesman for the Iraqi military, said at anews conference that the Iraqi army had re-taken several towns along the highwayconnecting Mosul to Baghdad, and had secured the city of Samarra, which has a majorShia shrine that the militants had threatened to destroy. At one point, militants of theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria had come to within 88km of Baghdad.

“The security in Baghdad is 100 per cent stable, the majority of Salahuddin province hasbeen regained, the morale of the security forces is very high,” said, Gen. Atta, who untilrecently was director of operations for the National Intelligence Service of Iraq, butapparently was appointed military spokesman in the midst of the present crisis.

“Don’t count on what the media are saying, it’s not correct or accurate,” he said. “Wehave distinguished operations underway and we will announce details after they’refinished, after we start a new battle in Salahuddin, in Diyala, in Nineveh and Kirkuk.” Butresidents reported that militants had seized control over Udhaim, the capital of Diyalaprovince, about 80km north of Baghdad

Gen. Atta gave few concrete details of the Iraqi gains, other than to say that Iraqisecurity forces had “liberated Baiji, Balad, Dujail, Ishaki and al Dulwayiha”, towns inSalahuddin province. Local journalists in Salahuddin, however, said fighting was stillgoing on in those places. Insurgents downed a military helicopter in central Tikrit justnorth of Baghdad, according to eyewitnesses.

Second-hand Source Reporting

Air Strike

14-06-2014Air strikes around Tikrit, which is still held by rebels

Location : Tikrit, Salahaddin

Incident summary : Air strikes were conducted around the city of Tikrit in Salahddin on Saturday asinsurgents still control the city. According to a source, insurgents planted landmines androadside bombs at the city’s entrances.

Iraqi helicopters continued air strikes around the city battling with the rebel fighters.


14-06-2014Bayji air strikes kill more than 200 ISIL fighters

Location : Bayji, Salahaddin

Incident summary : Iraq’s air forces have killed more than 200 ISIL fighters in Bayji City on Saturday.

A security source stated that the insurgents were killed when they were bombed by theIraqi Air Force in one of the arcades in Bayji City.


14-06-2014

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Air force bomb ISIL south Mosul, dozens killed and injured

Location : South Mosul

Incident summary : In southern Mosul, Iraqi Air Force bombed the ISIL elements and killed and injureddozens of them on Saturday.


14-06-20147 Kurdish security forces killed in Jalawla, Diyala air strike

Location : Jalawla, Diyala

Incident summary : In Jalawla, Diyala, seven members of the Kurdish security forces were killed in anairstrike on Saturday.

However, the secretary general of the Kurdish security forces said that only two peoplehad died near the town of Jalawla in what he described as shelling, and that it was notyet clear whether Iraqi forces or militants were responsible.


Source GradingReal-time incidents – Verified Real-time incidents – Unverified Verified – 24hrs old Second-hand Source Reporting

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sicuroims iraq daily - 15 june

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