July 12th Iraq SITREP by Mindfriedo

Iraq SITREP 12th July: Tony Blair and the orphans of Iraq

Quote of the (an earlier) day: General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on hearing of Ayatollah Sistani’s call for defensive Jihad, “the call that the Ayatollah Sistani put out for volunteers is being answered and it complicates the situation, frankly, a bit.”
Thought for the day: What did it complicate? The falling of Baghdad?

11th July: Ayatollah Sistani asks through his Friday Sermon that the three positions being contested: Prime Minister, President, and Speaker be decided during the next session of Parliament.
12th July: Human Rights Watch claims that government forces and allied Shia militias have killed over 250 Sunni Prisoners since the 9th of June.
12th July: Baghdadi’s family from his Albu Badri clan has left Samarra for the north of Iraq, Mosul and Tikrit, in fear of retaliation.
12th July: Reuters is reporting the recruitment and training of underage soldiers by Shia militias.
12th July: Sadr’s Ahrar block in parliament insists that it’s not just the position of President, Prime Minister and Speaker that need to be decided before parliament meets, but every minister that will be appointed.
12th July: Jalawla city in Diyala province is divided in two. The north and centre are with Peshmerga forces, while the southern area is still in rebel hands. Most of the south of the city is Arab. Recent clashes between the two had led to casualties on both sides: 4 Peshmergas killed, 6 injured; 8 Daash/Rebel fighters killed over a dozen injured
12th July: Daash has asked all retailers in Mosul to refrain from selling “un-Islamic” garments. One week respite has been provided to the vendors to dispose of their inventory. Season Sales and discounts are inevitable, lessons in retail management by Daash.
12th July: Unidentified gunmen kidnap the head of the Independent High Electoral Commission, Amer Lateef from his orchard south of Baqouba. His fate is unknown. May God protect him.
12th July: Ali Majidi, the assistant secretary of the Iranian Oil Ministry says that Iran is willing to meet any shortfall in the demand for oil as a consequence of the turmoil in Iraq. He called Iran the most stable oil supplier in the region.
12th July: 170 families from Sinjar, the west of Mosul, have arrived in Baghdad. They had fled theadvance oof Daash. They have been housed by Sadr’s Al Salam brigades in a school and are being supplied with necessities by the militia.
12th July: Displaced Families from Tal Afar have resorted to selling their children out of hunger and desperation. May God Curse those behind this suffering and may he help these poor families in their hour of need.
Those who support orphans and the impoverished people will be honored by Allah. (Ali ibn Abi Talib)
12th July: Ibrahim al Jafari, former Prime Minister of Iraq, has met with the US ambassador in Iraq, Stephen Beecroft, and his deputy. They have agreed that the three key posts need to be decided soon.
12th July: Kurdish politicians are seeing the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan as inevitable. They have categorically rejected Iran’s interference in Kurdistan’s plans for independence.
12th July: Egypt’s President Sisi volunteers to help rival political parties in Iraq reach an amicable solution
12th July: Maliki replaces Hoshyar Zebari with Hussein al-Shahristani as Iraq’s Foreign Minister after the former boycotts Maliki’s cabinet meeting. Zebari, a senior Kurdish politician, boycotted the meeting after Maliki accused Iraqi Kurdistan of harboring Terrorists.
12th July: Atta’s/Government claims for the day:
A judge, Abu Abdul Rahman aka Hakim Shalal, belonging to Daash is killed along with his retinue of four in Hawija district, the south of Kirkuk. He was killed by security forces in coordination with the air force.
Security forces kill three rebel snipers in Saddam’s hometown of Al-Ouja
The Iraqi army intelligence claims to have destroyed rebel supply lines in Babil and to have killed a large number of rebels. Confrontation between the security forces and Daash/rebel fighters in Jurf al-Sakher area of babil is ongoing.
The army has cleared the road from Tikrit University till a supply depot within the city. Over 250 vehicles have been seized.
Two senior leaders within Daash have been killed in an airstrike in Mosul
The air force kills 3 Daash militants in an air strike on their vehicle in Diyala
A suicide bomber is killed by Security Personnel in Baqouba
Counter terrorism units arrest 8 militants suspected of filling over 80 people in Babel
Security forces raid a militant’s house in eastern Baqouba and recover Israeli made weaponry
11 Daash/rebel fighters are killed and 4 vehicles destroyed in the north of Tikrit

Related News:
9th July: Jordanian border guards clash with Daash militants and injure three on the Jordanian Syrian border.
11th July: The Lebanese Army raids the town of Fneideq in the north and recovers explosive belts. It also seizes detonators in Beirut. It carried out the raids based on the information it recovered from arrests made recently. Further chilling details: http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=2&cid=19&frid=21&seccatid=19&eid=159718
12th July: Houthi Shia fighters in Yemen agree to withdraw forces from Amran, north of Sana.
12th July: Tribes loyal to Al Qaida blow up an oil pipeline in Habab, Yemen.

Short Analysis (cont)
As most commentators correctly pointed out, this BBC article was more propaganda than substance:
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-28263496
This link by Christoph Germann makes it very clear:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/07/08/the-new-great-game-round-up-july-7-2014/
I have, for the moment learnt my lesson, no more trusting the BBC.

Further reading:
Another excellent link by Christoph Germann
http://www.aydinlikdaily.com/Detail/Syrian-Army-Catches-The-CIA-Agents-And-Jihadists-Red-Handed/3888#.U8BzI7HaBuk/

“The cleric, a recluse who favors a behind-the-scenes role, kicked off his newly assertive stance on June 13 with a call for Iraqis to take up arms against a Sunni insurgency - the first fatwa of its kind in a century, clerics familiar with Sistani's thinking say, motivated by his fear the state faced collapse.”
A very condescending paragraph from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/29/us-iraq-security-clerics-insight-idUSKBN0F30KX20140629
“a recluse”
He is accessible to those who seek answers/guidance
“who favors a behind-the-scenes role”
He’s apolitical
“call for Iraqis to take up arms against a Sunni insurgency”
The call was to defend
“his fear the state faced collapse”
He was right

Deciphering Sistani:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/luay-al-khatteeb/what-do-you-know-about-si_b_5576244.html