July 5th IRAQ SITREP by Mindfriedo

4th July: Iraqi and US security personnel are warning of rebel sleeper cells within Baghdad numbering 1500 in Western Baghdad and 1000 on the outskirts that are waiting for "zero hour." Their plan would be to attack and hold sections within the city in anticipation of a rebel push from without. Sunni residents of Baghdad are complaining of atrocities being committed by Shia militias such as the Asahb Ahl al Haq under cover of rooting out collaborators.
4th July: Sistani's representative in Karbala reads out Sistani's sermon calling the failure to form government an "unfortunate failure."
5th July: Osama Al Nujaifi withdraws his candidacy for the post of speaker and proposes that Maliki do the same.
5th July: Maliki "I will not never give up my nomination for the post of prime minister." He argued further that his coalition had received, by far, the largest number of votes and had the right to decide on government formation.
5th July: Tunisia has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Iraq. It has left one member back to manage its mission till things return to normal.
5th July: the Kurds are finding it financially and politically difficult to declare independence. They are finding it higher to sell the crude oil they have and lacking refining capacity, have to depend on Baghdad to supply petroleum products. One of their tankers is sitting off the coast of Morocco filled with crude but without buyers. Their border countries, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq are against an independent Kurdistan and the US has asked the Kurdish leadership to remain within Iraq.
5th July: Iraqi tribesmen have killed a senior Daash fighter, Nasir Sabet, in clashes in Hawija. He was killed on Friday.
5th July: Iranian pilot, Colonel Shoja'at Alamdari Mourjani, is killed in Iraq. Iranian media reported him killed while defending the Shia shrine in Samarra but did not specify if he was killed in his role as a pilot or as an infantryman.
5th July: The UK treasury has frozen the assets of British jihadists who appeared in a recruitment video earlier in June.
5th July: The fatwa by Shia Marja Sistani is being seen as the primary reason for Baghdad surviving the rebel advance in Iraq. Sunni politicians have however called it Ill timed and divisive.
5th July: Daash posts multiple images on twitter of it destroying Shia shrines and mosques in Tal Afar, north Iraq
5th July: Daash militants destroy a Sunni shrine, the tomb of the grandson of the second Caliph Ummar ibn Khattab, in Mosul
5th July: Reinforcements have been sent to Baiji refinery
5th July: Skirmishes have taken place between security personnel aided by pro government militias and militants in Babil, south of Baghdad. The government side targeted rebel positions with mortar fire.
5th July: four civilians are injured in Sadr city when an IED was detonated
5th July: A Major with the Peshmeragas is killed by a rebel sniper in the north east of Baqouba, Diyala province
5th July: Two civilians are killed and four injured when an IED explodes near a shop in the village of Qara Tiba, north east of Baqouba, Diyala province. Mortar fire kills two civilians and injures four in Sa'adiya district district of Baqouba. The injured include an old woman and a child.

Related news:
4th July: Bahrain sees protests between security services and Shia youth on the death of Abdul Aziz al-Abbar, in the west of Manama.
5th July: Six men including two security personnel and a suicide bomber are killed in Saudi Arabia near the Yemenis border.
5th July: The Syrian army claims to be in complete control of the industrial zone outside Aleppo