C

I V I L -

M I L I T A

R Y

U S

O N

C E

N T

R E

Complex
25 June 2013

Coverage
Comprehensive Information on Complex Crisis

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Iraq Lebanon Syria IED & Demining 1 2 4 5

This document provides complex coverage of global events from 18 24 June 2013 with hyperlinks to source material highlighted in blue and underlined in the text. For more information on the topics below or other issues pertaining to events in the region, contact the members of the Complex Coverage Team or visit our website at www.cimicweb.org.

DISCLAIMER
The Civil-Military Fusion Centre (CFC) is an information and knowledge management organisation focused on improving civil-military interaction, facilitating information sharing and enhancing situational awareness through the CimicWeb portal and our Weekly and monthly publications. CFC products are based upon and link to open-source information from a wide variety of organisations, research centres and media outlets. However, the CFC does not endorse and cannot necessarily guarantee the accuracy or objectivity of these sources. CFC publications are independently produced by Desk Officers and do not reflect NATO policies or positions of any other organsiation. The CFC is part of NATO Allied Command Operations.

Iraq

Linda Lavender

linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

The March 2013 Anbar and Nineveh provincial elections, delayed by Baghdad over insecurity, took place on 20 June, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Tightened security and vehicle bans were imposed during voting hours in major cities to protect against possible car bombings. Election results are not expected for several days. Associated Press (AP) reports that hundreds of candidates from 28 political blocks in Nineveh and 16 from Anbar are vying for representation on the provincial-level councils. There are 39 contested seats in Nineveh and 30 in Anbar, both Sunni dominated provinces. In the wake of rising sectarian violence, militias have made a comeback in Iraq, reports RFE/RL. The return of rival Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq, which comes amid escalating tensions between the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and the countrys Sunni minority, has rekindled fears of an Iraqi civil war. In Baghdad, residents report that militias roam the streets and many are too scared to leave their homes. Some shops and restaurants have closed, fearing they will be targeted by militias. Spill-over violence from Syria exacerbating insecurity, reports Reuters. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said, [w]e are doing our best to maintain a neutral position, but the pressures are enormous and for how long we can hold really is a matter of further developments in Syria. Iraqs Shiite leaders have historically been hostile to Syrian President Assads government but now they privately acknowledge they fear that a collapse of the Syrian government will fracture Iraq along sectarian lines and bring power to a hardline Sunni government in Damascus, hostile to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. Some Iraqi Sunni leaders hope that the rise of a Sunni government in Damascus will bolster their own struggle for more power as the minority Muslim sect in Iraq. Shiite militant groups Mehdi Army, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah are all sending volunteers to Syria, inflamed by

CONTACT THE CFC

For further information contact: Complex Coverage Team Leader Linda Lavender linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

reports of Shiite religious sites being desecrated by some rebel groups, according to News Daily. The numbers of Shiite Iraqi fighters in Syria are estimated at 600 to more than 1,000 while militia commanders say only that around 50 fighters a week have been crossing the border, operating on rotation. AP reports that al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) are enjoying growing acceptance in Ninevahs capital Mosul as a result of perceived brutality over the governments handling of Sunni protests in the province. AQI were never fully routed from Mosul and the environs, which have now emerged as major flashpoints in a wave of violence that has killed nearly 2,000 Iraqis since April 2013. Other Sunni militant groups such as Ansar al Islam and the Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order are also active in Nineveh province. Numerous violent incidents were reported throughout the country this past week. Incidents are depicted on the Iraq map (below). Red stars indicate the location of violence. 18-June-13: In Baghdad, a suicide bomber targeting a Shiite mosque killed 37 people, reports The New York Times (NYT). The mosque is a popular place of prayer for students attending the nearby Shiite Islamic University in Baghdad. 19-June-13: A suicide bomber detonated himself while embracing a Sunni politician, killing the leader in Nineveh province, reports Reuters. In the outskirts of Baghdad, the bodies of three kidnapped men were found handcuffed, with bullet wounds to the head and chest in the town of Sharqat. 20-June-13: A roadside bomb transporting five electoral officials in Baiji, Nineveh province, killed one person while in Mosul a mortar round was fired at a voting centre checkpoint, wounding two Iraqi soldiers, reports Reuters. 21-June-13: A suicide bomber killed seven at an Iraqi ballot counting centre in Ramadi Anbar province, hours after polling stations closed, reports Reuters. Four of the fatalities were Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) members. 22-June-13: In Taji, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomb inside al Rahman mosque killed fifteen and wounded thirty civilians, reports Agence FrancePresse (AFP). In Mosul, a suicide attacker killed four people including a police officer. In Tuz Khormato, gunmen opened fire on patrolling police, killing three officers and in Tikrit, militants fired on day labourers waiting near a grain silo, killing two and wound four others. 23-June-13: Twelfth Iraqi army division commander Brig. Gen. Mohammed Khalaf reports an assault on a police station near the northern town of Hawija resulted in three deaths, according to AP. Also, in the nearby town of Tuz Khormato, two car bombs denoted, killing one civilian and wounding 27 others. A mortar round hit a motel in central Baghdad, killing three people. 24-June-13: At least 41 people were killed in and around Baghdad after a series of bombings, reports AsiaNews. Many of the attacks targeted outdoor markets and restaurants. RFE/RL reports that two suicide bombers targeted a group of Turkomans protesting poor security in the ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khormato, regularly hit by attacks.

A total of 71 men and women from the exiled Iranian group, the Peoples Mujahedeen of Iran, have been safely relocated from Camp Liberty near Baghdad to Albania, reports United Press International (UPI). An attack earlier in the month on Camp Liberty underscored the importance of relocating the Iranian dissidents to safety. Russian energy company Gazprom is pursuing additional oil projects in Kurdistan, reports UPI. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani travelled to St. Petersburg to meet with Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller to explore further cooperation on oil and natural gas projects. Also, UPI reports that Kurdistan consolidated their growing energy sector with Chevron, who committed to a third exploration block in the region while Frances Total also signed for a major stake in another block. Thes e contracts only serve to intensify the Kurds challenge to Baghdad, heightening tension between government forces and the Kurdish pershmerga troops on the Kurdish-regions southern border.

Lebanon

Linda Lavender

linda.lavender @cimicweb.org

Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Fouad Siniora announced that Hezbollah is serving Syria and Iran at the expense of the Lebanese, reports Reuters. Siniora implored Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to stop the states collapse and give the Lebanese hope, adding [Lebanon] needs a full and immediate withdrawal of Hezbollah from the fighting. On 20 June, Sleiman called on the Hezollah movement to pull its guerrilla forces out of Syria, saying its involvement in Syria is fuelling instability in Lebanon, according to Reuters. Earlier in the week, Sleiman delivered a memorandum to the UN, listing violations by the Assad government and Syrian rebels against Lebanons territory, reports The Daily Star. In response, Baath Party MP Assem Qanso demanded treason 25 June 2013

charges be levied on Sleiman, according to a separate Daily Star article. Qanso charges that the Lebanese president does not have the authority to deliver such messages, a right reserved for the Foreign Ministry headed by Adnan Mansour. On 18 June, Sleiman delivered the memorandum through the UN representative in Lebanon Dereck Plumbly after apparently losing confidence that Mansour1 would do so. The statement was delivered by the president to the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon at a meeting held in Baabda Palace. On 24 June, President Suleiman called an emergency meeting with ministers and security officials to discuss ways to contain spreading violence, reports The Washington Post. In a diplomatic move, Saudi Arabias ambassador to Beirut announced that the kingdom planned to deport Lebanese who supported Hezbollah in the Syrian conflict, according to AP. Meanwhile, Frances foreign minister Laurent Fabius urged Hezbollah and Iran to stop meddling in Syrias civil war, suggesting that they have transformed the conflict into an international war, according to AFP. The Sunni-stonghold village of Arsal in the predominately Shiite Bekaa Valley is a haven for Syrian refugees and a weapons depot for rebel fighters, according to Christian Science Monitor (CSM). The fall of the Syrian town Qusayr has cut the logistical supply chain that extended north from Arsal, over the border to Qusayr and on to Homs. Sources close to Hezbollah suggest that Assad s forces, bolstered by Hezbollah support, will focus efforts on sealing the border east of Arsal, potentially bottling up several thousand Lebanese and Sunni rebel fighters. Al-Jamaa al Islamiya2 MP Imad Hout said on 22 June that the recent rockets that knocked out electrical wires near Beirut aimed at sending a warning to Lebanons president, reports The Daily Star. Hours after a rocket landed near the Presidential Palace in Baabda, the Lebanese Army located launch pads located in Ballouneh and Kesrouan. Numerous violent incidents were reported throughout the country this past week. Incidents are depicted on the Lebanon map (below). Red stars indicate the location of violence. 18-June-13: Two people were killed when deadly clashes erupted between Hezbollah supporters and Sunni cleric Sheik Ahmad al Assir supporters in the southern city of Sidon, reports Al Jazeera. Fighting erupted in the Abra neighbourhood. The Lebanese army sought to cut off roads leading to Abra in efforts to stem violence. Automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were used in the clashes. Violence broke out after the clerics brother was attacked in his car. 21-Jun-13: The Lebanese army sealed off Beiruts parliamentary district with razor wire after approximately 100 protesters, angered by the postponement of June parliamentary elections, clashed with police, reports Reuters. In other areas of Beirut, peaceful protesters burned tires. The Bekaa Valley also saw protests. 22-Jun-13: Six shells from the Syrian side of the border struck the northern cities of al Dababiyeh and al Noura. There were no casualties and sources report that the Lebanese Army quickly responded to the incident, assisting residents evacuate to a safer location. 23-Jun-13: In Abra, east of the southern port city of Sidon, as many as twelve Lebanese soldiers have been killed in ongoing clashes between Hezbollah supporters and supporters of Sheikh Ahmad Assir, who is a vocal anti-Hezbollah hardline Sunni cleric, reports NYT. Army checkpoints in the northern city of Tripoli came under fire as insecurity spreads. A bomb was discovered near the Bekaa Valley offices of the Arab Socialist Baath Party in Jalala. The Lebanese army successfully diffused the explosive device. 24-Jun-13: Lebanese army units closed in on followers of Salafist Sunni cleric in the southern port city of Sidon after clashes broke out on 23 June. Later in the day, Lebanese commandos seize d a complex belonging to Salafist cleric Assir and Lebanons military prosecutor issued arrest warrants against Assir and 123 of his followers. The Daily Star reports that over 25 gunmen loyal to Sheikh Assir were killed in the recent clashes. According to Lebanese police and non-governmental organisations active in Lebanon, the incidence of sexual harassment and assault is on the rise, reports The Daily Star. Most cited the deteriorating security situation in Lebanon as the source of the problem; however, some are concerned that the increasing number of incidents corresponds to the onset of the Syrian war and it could be unjustly linked to the recent influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon. Lebanese Lieutenant Colonel Elie Asmar, who heads the Internal Security Forces (ISF) department dealing with sex crimes, says that the incidents come from multiple sources. Some perpetrators are Syrian, but there are also Lebanese harassers, as well as Palestinians, Egyptians all the nationalities. Of additional concern is the rising trend of underage marriages among displaced Syrians in Lebanon according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Girls as young as thirteen years are being married as many parents most arriving from the embattled city of Qusayr, have told social workers that they are forced to make these choices to protect their daughters from exploitation.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, a Hezbollah supporter, has defended Hezbollahs intervention in Syrian. Lebanese President Sleiman requested Mansour file an official complaint with both the UN and the Arab League over Syrian sovereignty violations in March 2013. On 17 June, Mansour announced that he was still considering the presidents request. 2 Al-Jamaa al Islamiya is a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate operating in Lebanon.
1

25 June 2013

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antnio Guterres met with Lebanese leaders and refugees on 18 June, World Refugee Day, to discuss the overwhelming pressure on local communities that host refugees. Projections indicate the number of Syrian refugees could top one million by the end of 2013. A country of four million citizens, Lebanon is officially host3 to 546,000 Syrian refugees, reports NYT. The influx of refugees continues to place an enormous strain water access, sanitation, education and health care. Unemployment is high and wages have dropped because Syrians will reportedly accept lower wages than Lebanese workers. Resentment amongst poor Lebanese over the provision of UN food and shelter assistance to Syrian refugees is fuelling tensions. As anger increases over the presence of refugees, curfews have been imposed but have not curtailed sporadic attacks against refugees occurring in Lebanon. Guterres indicated that the only way for Lebanon, and other neighbouring countries to the Syrian conflict, to endure is through continued funding of humanitarian organisation operations.

Syria

Linda Lavender

linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

The G8 Summit held in Ireland ended with the worlds leaders calling for a peace conference on the Syrian conflict, but failed to detail the fate of embattled President Bashar al Assad, reports Al Jazeera. Leaders reiterated their commitment to achieving a political solution to the crisis but British Prime Minister David Ca meron said it was unthinkable that Assad could play a role in a tra nsitional administration. Although he was excluded from the official G8 Summit communique, British officials assert that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to see the removal of the Assad leadership if it was replaced with a stable and balanced Syrian government thereby avoiding a dangerous power vacuum, writes The Guardian. According to British officials, Putin declared off the record that he holds no personal loyalty to Assad. Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the Syrian Opposition remains committed to toppling the Assad regime, asserting that any political solution in Syria would require Assads removal. Syrias Foreign Minister Walid al Muallem indicated that [the Assad government] will head to Geneva not to hand over power to the other sidewe will go to Geneva in order to set up a real partnership and a broad national unity government, according to Al Jazeera. French President Francois Hollande opened the door to include Iran in proposed peace talks to take place in Geneva, according to Reuters. Hollande stated that if newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rohani signalled willingness to be constructive; he would be welcomed at the Geneva talks. Saudi Arabias former intelligence officer, Chief Prince Muqrin, once warned US diplomats that the Middle Easts Shiite Crescent 4 was turning into a full moon, reports Reuters. Increasingly, Riyadh views the Syrian war as the fulcrum of a wider geopolitical struggle against Iran, a country Saudi Arabia believes is radical, expansionist and militant. In April 2013, Riyadh began backing the mainly Sunni rebels with arms, money and political support. While continued support is anticipated by the opposition, there is a growing view among senior Saudis that a rebel victory in Syria will require more than arms and advice. Recent calls by Gulf States Sunni Muslim clerics to engage in jihad in Syria, is fuelling radicalism in the region, according to a senior Iranian official, reports Reuters. Iranian Deputy Minister for Arab and Foreign Affairs Amir Abdollahian said radicals in Syrian have been attacking all sects and creating rifts between communities and called for a political solution to the conflict. Diplomats attending the Friends of Syria group meeting in Doha , Qatar discussed how to organise the delivery of military and other kinds of aid to Syrian rebels, reports Al Jazeera. At the same time, the Doha meeting sought to create momentum for peace talks in Geneva. Currently, the West and Russia are deeply divided on how peace talks should progress and over desired outcomes. AFP reports that Iran denounced the decision taken by Western and Arab countries attending the meeting in Doha to sending weapons to Syria. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia will honour its controversial contract to deliver S-300 air defence missile systems to Syria, reports Associated Press (AP). Also, Lavrov reiterated Russias opposition to a proposed no-fly zone in Syria which the S-300 systems would make virtually impossible to implement. US leadership has declined to disclose the types of military support it was prepared to give to Syrian rebels, according to AP. The Telegraph reports that the first heavy weapons have arrived to rebels, following US President Barack Obamas decision to arm the Syrian opposition. Saudi Arabia has already begun supplying rebels with Russian-made Konkurs anti-tank missiles. Also, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters that France need further consultations with Syrian rebel leadership before transferring heavy weapons to their troops, reports Reuters. Hollande urged moderate rebels to retake areas controlled by extremists in order to create the conditions necessary for France to consider arming Syrian rebels, reports AFP. Weapons transfer to rebels has sparked feuding and infighting among rebel factions over equitable distribution, reports AP. Each new shipment of weapons enters a tangle of complex rebel politics, with dozens of brigades and battalions operating on the ground. Moderate brigades complain Islamists are being favoured in distribution. On the ground, rebels have begun to organise themselves to better funnel weapons and more effectively fight but progress is slow. The Syrian conflict has afforded Syrian Kurds the chance to carve out independent Kurdish regions, reports AP. Syrian Kurds have created their own police force, license plates and are now going public with Kurdish language and culture. These developments
3

Registered and awaiting registration Syrian refugees number 546,000. However, the Lebanese government indicates that unofficial numbers of refugees in the country are closer to one million. 4 The Shiite Crescent describes the Shiite Muslim sects areas of influence in the Middle East led by Iran.

25 June 2013

have placed them at odds with Syrian rebels who seek to govern the Kurdish region of Syria. Rebels continue to attack a pocket of Kurdish towns and villages in the mainly Sunni Arab northwest corner of Syria threatening to evolve into an ethnic war between Kurds and Arabs. In other regional developments, Syrias civil war has caused a split within the Palestinian group Hamas over whether to continue its alliance with Damascus or side with Sunni allies in the Gulf States, reports The Daily Star. The split within the Palestinian movement, which currently governs the Gaza Strip, coincides with news that Iran has scaled back its financial support of the group after the organization refused to support Assads violence crackdown on protesters in 2012. Syrian rebel groups announced the seizure of a main highway in northern Syria in an effort to choke off supply routes for Assad forces in the region, reports Reuters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights indicates that opposition forces seized the army checkpoint on the Ariha-Latakia stretch of a main highway that transits Aleppo. Other activist groups report that rebels captured three checkpoints but still require the seizure of three additional checkpoints in order to cut off Assad force access to the M5 highway. Meanwhile, United Press International (UPI) reports that Assad forces are tightening a cordon around the city of Aleppo in a major offensive to retake the city from rebels. Government tanks and artillery are amassing around the city, and rebels report that Syrian warplanes attacked positions around the contested Kweiras airbase near Aleppo on 18 June amid heavy ground fighting. On 23 June a car bomb killed twelve Assad soldiers in Syrias northern city of Aleppo, reports AP. On the same day, a powerful blast in the capital city of Damascus killed at least three people. On 19 June, Jordans military reported Syrian infiltrators had clashed with Jordanian soldiers near the shared border, reports AP. One infiltrator was killed when the foreigners opened fire on a Jordanian border post. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reports the US will keep approximately 1,000 troops in Jordan as a show of force. Fiji has offered more than 500 soldiers to serve in the UN peacekeeping mission on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, reports AFP. The majority of replacement forces to the Golan Heights will be complete by July 2013 with 170 Fiji soldiers set to replace Japanese and Croatian soldiers this month. Fiji has offered to replace the 370 Austrian forces that are set to withdraw from the region. Meanwhile on 20 June, the Philippines, which supplies one third of peacekeeping forces on the Golan, warned the UN it may withdraw unless forces receive heavy weapons and protection to survive any attacks by warplanes, tanks and chemical weapons, according to The New York Times (NYT). While Assad boasts of victories over Syrian rebels and proclaims new battlefield momentum in the Syrian conflict, his government is facing the threat of a rapidly weakening currency, reports NYT. Between 22-23 June, the Syrian pound fell approximately thirty per cent against the dollar, partly in reaction to the US announcement it would begin arming rebels. Economists suggest that the plunge in value may have been exacerbated by the apparent unwillingness or possible inability of Syrias Central Bank to halt it by purchasing pounds with dollars or euros, suggesting foreign currency reserves are low. Voice of America (VOA) reports that Iran has stepped in to help Syria stabilise the value of its currency. Syria can now draw on a USD one billion line of credit set up by Tehran to stabilise the Syrian pound. Kristalina Georgiev, Commissioner for the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department of the European Commission, called the Syrian refugee situation, the worlds worst refugee crisis in decades adding, and if we dont get off this slippery slope it will soon become the largest [refugee crisis] in our lifetime in front of our eyes, reports The Telegraph. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has placed six world heritage sites in Syria on their endangered list as a result of continued fighting, reports The Guardian. The sites include the city of Aleppo, Damascus, the Roman ruins in Palmyra and the crusader castles of Crac des Chevaliers and Qalat Sala el Din.

IED & Demining

GLOBAL NEWS

Linda Lavender

linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

The CFC publishes a weekly IED and Demining Events map. This global compilation links to articles reporting significant IED related-events and demining efforts. This report covers 18 24 June 2013. Click on the map for more IED events.

Ireland: A homemade bomb discovered in Tallaght Dublin was successfully made safe by the Army Bomb Disposal Team, reports Breaking News. Somalia: Militants in Mogadishu attacked the UN compound on 19 June with a truck bomb and then stormed the building, killing at least thirteen people, according to the Associated Press (AP). Thailand: A roadside bomb detonated on 23 June in Nong Chik district of Pattani, killing a senior Army officer while wounding five others, reports The Nation. 25 June 2013