Iraq SITREP 8th July: Battle for Tikrit
A VERY INTERESTING LINK: http://www.syrianews.cc/isis-the-bombshell-interview-to-impeach-obama/
YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEuJ5v3AbJg
It shows Daash/ISIS being a proxy of US interests. It's Rolex wearing Caliph America's man. A subversion similar to the government backed Islamists during the Algerian Civil War.
7th July: Three mortar shells land near the Northern Saudi town of Arar. It is unclear who fired the rounds near the Iraqi Saudi border
7th July: The Iraqi army is preparing an all out assault on Tikrit. The authorities in Salahuddin province expect the armed forces to be in complete control of Tikrit in the next 48 hours
8th July: the Iraqi army started its advance on Tikrit from the north. Progress has been slow but steady with the army repelling a rebel counter offensive. A fifth of the residents of Tikrit have not fled and remain in the city as fighting escalates.
8th July: Rumours are circulating in Baghdad that the army plans to mount an Iranian backed coup in the absence political leadership and the deadlock in government formation
8th July: Daash (or should we call it blaaahsh) confiscates 20000 sheep from Nineveh and Salahuddin province and forcefully sells them to farmers in Diyalah
8th July: Moqtada Sadr meets with the military leadership of his Peace Brigades to be updated on the security situation in Samarra
8th July: Peshmerga fighters are negotiating with militants and local tribes in Jalawla in Diyala to let Peshmerga forces enter the town's southern districts. The two Arab Southern suburbs were the only ones still held by rebels and led to daily clashes and attrition losses on both sides. The Peshmergas were being held back by Ba'athist fighters.
8th July: The residents of Al Atheem in Diyala have formed people militias to protect themselves from the chaos and looting of Daash fighters
8th July: A mass grave of Daash fighters is discovered in Suleiman Bek town near the border of Diyala
8th July: Senator McCain tells CBS Maliki must go, Daash should be bombed first, FSA should be armed
8th July: Tribal fighters from Al Zweiya north of Tikrit kill 3 Daash fighters, the army assisted the tribal fighters with airstrikes destroying three vehicles. Daash has reportedly killed 50 tribal fighters it had captured in Baiji.
8th July: The Iraqi parliament has rescheduled its next session to the 12th of July
8th July: Massod Barzani is to announce the next President of Iraqi Kurdistan after consulting with the concerned political parties. The front runner is Abraham Salih.
8th July: A suicide bomber in a car bombed a check point north of Baghdad killing three police men and two civilians
8th July: Sunni cleric and head of the Scholars of Iraq Group, Shaikh Khalid Al Mulla stated that Sunni cities and towns including Mosul plan to organise National Defence Battalions to fight Islamic extremists in keeping with the call made by Sistani and other Sunni scholars
8th July: A road side bomb kills three federal police men and injures two west of Samarra
8th July: An IED explodes in Eastern Baghdad injuring two civilians
8th July: A suicide bomber driving a vehicle targets a checkpoint in Kadhmain in Baghdad, killing 3 civilians and injuring 10. A bomb explodes in the Abdul Mihsin Al Kadhimi square in Kadhmain injuring 2 civilians
8th July: A bomb explodes in Yusufiya, South Baghdad injuring 3 civilians
8th July: a According to Salama Al Khafaji, High Commission for Human Rights in Iraq, Daash is forcing a Sunni family in Mosul to have their daughter divorce her Shia husband
8th July: Hackers reported to be close to the government in Beijing target Iraqi related US interests
8th July: Maliki has appointed Major General Raed Shakir Jawdat as the new police chief of Iraq. He was earlier the police commander of Wasit.
8th July: Atta's/Government claims for the day:
Tribal forces and the government are planning to expel Rebel forces from Salah il-din and Nineveh provinces
Abdul Qader Hmaat a Colonel in Saddam's army has been killed along with 33 rebels in government airstrikes in Tal Afar north of Iraq. Another 38 rebels were injured
Related NEWS:
8th July: Bahrain expels the American Ambassador Tom Malinowski for talking with opposition Shia groups
8th July: The Battle for Aleppo begins in earnest with government troops, elite Republican guards, and Hezballah reinforcements having encircled the rebel held city.
8th July: Rebels receive a second batch of anti tank TOW missiles from the US
8th July: Daash has captured Kurdish villages along the Syrian Turkish border
8th July: Arsonists burn a Shia Mosque in Istanbul
8th July: A former Turkish jihadist: there are over 6000 Turkish Islamists who have received training by Daash
Further reading:
Whitewashing Saudi Arabia:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28133086