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Complex
06 November 2012

Coverage
Comprehensive Information on Complex Crises

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Iraq Mali Syria IED & Demining 1 2 3 4

This document provides complex coverage of global events from 30 October 05 November, with hyper-links 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.

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Iraq

Linda Lavender linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

CONTACT THE CFC

For further information, contact: Complex Coverage Team Leader Linda Lavender

On 30 October, Tehran leadership requested that the Iraqi government suspend inspections of Iranian aircraft travelling to Syria through Iraqi airspace, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mahmanparast stated [t]he Iraqi government should resist such pressure [from the US] and do not allow such acts to take place in the future. Recently, Iraqi officials grounded and inspected two Iranian cargo planes destined for Syria as the United States pressed Baghdad to ensure all Iranian aircraft flying through its airspace did not carry weapons to the Syrian government. In other diplomatic news, Romanias Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean reports that he has opened his countrys consulate in Erbil, Kurdistan, reports Ekurd, a Kurdish news agency. The new consulate will work to strengthen ties between Romania and the Kurdish region of Iraq. Currently, twenty-five countries have opened consulates in the Kurdish region. On 03 November, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant bases in northern Iraq, reports Todays Zaman. Heavy shelling was reported at the PKKs Hakurk camp, which straddles the Turkish-Iraqi-Iranian borders. Anbar province, Iraqs Sunni heartland and former al Qaeda stronghold, is increasingly concerned about the war in Syria, reports Reuters. Tribal ties span the Iraqi-Syrian border, and Sunni chieftains and community leaders say that Iraqi tribes are regularly sending Syrian relatives food and supplies while some openly support the efforts of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Iraqi Sunnis welcome the prospect of a Sunni-friendly government in Syria while the Shiite-led Iraqi government sees a Sunni-led government in Syrian as a nightmare scenario, according to the article. In other sectarianrelated news, fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al Hashemi has been handed a third death sentence by Baghdad courts for his involvement in a foiled 2011 car bombing that allegedly targeted Shiite Muslims, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Hashemi, who has been residing in Turkey after fleeing criminal charges in Iraq in December 2011, continues to maintain that the gov

linda.lavender@cimicweb.org
Complex Coverage Desk Officer Angelia Sanders angelia.sanders@cimicweb.org

ernments case against him is politically motivated as he continues to be a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite Muslim. The UN Mission in Iraq confirmed that Iraqi government officials in Baghdad will hold provincial elections on 20 April 2013, reports United Press International (UPI). Martin Kobler, UN special envoy stated, [s]etting the date will pave the way to move swiftly toward the planning for the organisation and conduct of the governorate council elections and reiterated the United Nations commitment to supporting Iraqi election groups in preparing for the contest. A US Inspector General report notes progress in resolving internal oil disputes in Iraq but tempered its findings, cautioning that rivalries among groups remain tense within the country, according to UPI. Iraq has produced its highest level of crude oil since 1990, more than three million barrels each day, but internal political differences between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad continue to limit Iraqs potential and tensions between the two remain high. On 5 November, Iraqi officials signed a five-year deal with Pakistan Petroleum that will facilitate the exploration of a massive tract of land believed to contain natural gas, according to Middle East Online. Pakistan Petroleums Chief Executive Asim Khan stated, the oil production [and] the gas production from this block will not only help the Iraqi economy, it will help the Pakistani economy also. The land tract, located in once violent Diyala province was not a concern for Khan who was sure his companys operations could overcome the security [issue]. Also, the Gulf Times reports that Turkey has signed a USD 350 million deal to drill forty oil wells in Basra, southern Iraq. Additionally, Turkey is holding talks with Baghdad to drill up to 7,000 oil wells across the country despite recent tensions between Ankara and Baghdad. Associated Press (AP) reports that Iraqi auditors believe as much as USD 800 million is illegally sent out of the country each week, draining Iraq of hard currency. Auditors fear that up to eighty per cent of all money sent abroad lacks proper documentation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that between 2009 and 2012, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Iraq doubled and Iraqis are increasingly looking to purchase European luxury items. Meanwhile, the plunge in Irans currency due to international sanctions has impacted Iraqi businesses, according to al Jazeera. Iranian pilgrims and tourists, who frequently travel to Iraq, are no longer flush with money to spend. Shop owners near popular Shiite holy sites report that Iranian pilgrims have been hard hit by sanctions. Now sanctions are impacting small-time Iraqi entrepreneurs and forcing some businesses to lay off workers. Violence in Iraq dropped sharply in October 2012, despite a string of deadly Eid al Adha attacks, reports AFP. Reports show that a total of 144 people (88 civilians, 31 policemen and 25 Iraqi soldiers) were killed while 264 people were injured. Fatalities were at their lowest since June 2012. Insurgents gunned down three Iraqi soldiers at a Baghdad checkpoint on 03 November, according to AP. On 05 November, the New Indian Express reported that two car bombs in Baghdad killed three people and injured fifteen others.

Mali

Angelia Sanders angelia.sanders@cimicweb.org

The European Union (EU) is considering a plan to send 200 troops to train Malis army in efforts to oust Islamist extremists in the North, but is not willing to commit EU combat forces, reports Reuters. Northern Mali has become a haven for traffickers who smuggle people, drugs and cigarettes, as well as for al Qaeda-linked terrorists that continue to threaten stability in Europe. Meanwhile, international experts from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), African Union (AU), EU and the United Nations (UN) held a conference in Bamako on 30 October to finalise plans for an armed intervention in northern Mali, reports AFP. The plans are to be presented to the UN Security Council, which had given ECOWAS a deadline of 26 November to develop a detailed strategic plan for military intervention. Tuareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) stated that they want to be included in regional and international efforts to defeat Islamist extremism in the North, reports Magharebia. The MNLA has long demanded an independent state in northern Mali and rejects the imposition of Sharia law and any affiliation with al Qaeda. Despite representing the views of a large percentage of northern Malis residents, the MNLA has largely been excluded from a role in resolving the crisis in the North. In an effort to mediate an end to the crisis, an ECOWAS-appointed mediator, President Blaise Compaore, met with a delegation from the Islamist extremist group Ansar Dine and Malian government officials in Burkina Faso, reports Associated Press (AP). Compaore has urged Ansar Dine to distance itself from working with other hard-line fundamentalists and terrorist groups operating in the North. Ansar Dines leader, Iyad Ag Ghaly, stated that he would be ready to distance himself from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and support international dialogue on the Mali issue, according to AFP. Viewed as a possible facilitator in helping to resolve the Malian crisis, Ansar Dine has also sent a delegation to Algeria for dialogue on the crisis. Algeria continues to withhold its support for a military operation in Mali. Relatives of eight men killed by the Malian military on 21 October state their kinsmen were Tuareg herders, not armed gunmen, as the military falsely reported, according to AP. The Malian government had previously released a statement that it had targeted armed gunmen suspected of attacking a bus. The deaths mark the second time soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed civilians. The first occurred in September 2012 when Malian soldiers killed sixteen unarmed Muslim preachers en route to a religious conference in Malis capital. According to the Commission on Population Movement in Mali, a working group headed by the Protection Cluster of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), new statistics show that the number of suspected internally displaced people (IDPs) in Mali has increased from 118,795 to at least 203,845. The new numbers reflect better access by humanitarian organisations to areas in the North and better counting of displaced people in the Malian capital. New arrivals of refugees into neighbouring countries continue; however, access to refugees is becoming more difficult in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania as the threat of aid-worker abductions is forcing organisations to travel with armed escorts. The Niger-based aid organisations BEFEN and Health Alert announced that five health workers were released and one died of wounds sustained when unidentified gunmen kidnapped them on 14 October, reports AP. The kidnappers are believed to be Islamist extremists who have kidnapped others and taken them to northern Mali to be held for ransom. Niger Defence Minister Karidio Mahamadou told Reuters he suspected the kidnappers belonged to an al Qaeda-linked group called Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which along with Ansar Dine, controls northern Mali.

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Aid organisations report that child malnutrition in northern Mali is reaching alarming levels, which makes them more vulnerable to otherwise treatable diseases like diarrhoea and malaria, according to Voice of America (VOA). Traditionally, the herding communities of northern Mali are less affected by malnutrition and regional food shortages because they have access to their animals for sources of meat and protein; however, the fighting in the North has forced many herders to abandon, sell or eat their livestock. These actions will likely make herders more vulnerable to future food crises. Currently, the country has 4.6 million people at risk of food shortages, though the majority of those at risk are living in the government-controlled South.

Syria

Linda Lavender linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that time had come to explore new leadership beyond the Syrian National Council (SNC) and instead, to work with Syrian representatives who are fighting and dying in the struggle against the Syrian regime, reports RFE/RL. Steven Heydemann of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) explains that developments on the ground in Syria, have created the opportunity for new leadership, organisation frameworks and new governance, according to the New York Times (NYT). In certain regions of Syria outside the Assad governments control, governance mechanisms, such as elected local leaders and councils, have emerged and now create a viable alternative to the Syrian National Council (SNC) with which the international community can engage. Meanwhile, SNC head Abdel Basset Sayda says the failure of the international community to intervene in the countrys conflict has fuelled Islamic extremist activity, according to AFP. Saydas comments came after US officials have increasingly become frustrated with the SNCs perceived failure to unify disparate opposition groups within Syria while Clinton noted that some of the exiled SNC leadership have not been inside Syria for more than twenty years. Also, Clinton urged the Syrian opposition to resist efforts by extremists operating in Syria to co-opt their revolution, according to AFP. On 04 November, opposition leaders gathered in Doha, Qatar to discuss a possible restructuring of the SNC, in order to reflect emerging leadership within the country and to deflect criticism that the exile-led SNC fails to represent people on the ground in Syria, according to UPI. As a result, the SNC extended membership to include more than 400 different Syrian groups operating within the country at the Doha meeting, according to BBC. A US-backed proposal discussed in Doha would set up a new fifty-member leadership group that speaks for all the major opposition factions and would include military commanders and local councils in Syria. The new plan would result in the SNC holding a minority stake in the new leadership structure and some opposition leadership expressed doubts that the reorganisation would work. In diplomatic events, on 02 November, Russian officials blasted Secretary Clintons comments regarding the restructuring of the SNC and accused the United States of trying to resolve the conflict on its own terms, reports AFP. Russia also accused US officials of simply ignoring Russia and Chinas joint resistance to what are seen as international efforts to topple the Assad regime. Russia asserts that the current US position was not agreed upon by US and Russian delegates in the June 2012 Geneva Declaration. which stipulated a transitional administration in Syria but did not clarify what role President Bashar al Assad would play in the transition, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to arm the Syrian government in accordance with weapons agreements dating back to the Soviet-era, according to Reuters. In addition to long standing arms agreements, Russia most recently signed a USD 1 billion weapons deal in 2011. On 05 November, Russia signalled its support of an Egyptian initiative to reconvene officials from Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to seek resolution to the crisis, according to Reuters. A similar initiative failed in September 2012, after the groups clout was blunted by the absence of Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, China unveiled, a vague four-point plan for Syria on 01 November that called for a cease-fire in stages and a political transition to end the violence, according to the NYT. Chinas plan lacked important details about issues such as the role President Assad would play in the transition. Also on 01 November, UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Cairo for a two-day visit to discuss Syria with Egyptian officials. Brahimi briefed Arab League and Egyptian leadership about his visits to Russia and China where officials discussed the Syrian conflict, according to the Egypt Independent. French President Francois Hollande met with Saudi King Abdullah after a brief visit to Beirut where he pledged to protect Lebanon from regional instability created by the Syrian conflict, reports AFP. The Saudi and French leaders discussed the Syrian conflict in addition to other regional concerns. Israel lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations monitors overseeing the Golan Heights on 03 November as fighting raged between Syrian government and rebel forces near Israeli positions on the strategic region Golan Heights, reports AFP. Israeli media reported that as tanks entered the Golan Heights village of Beer Ajam, the Israeli military officially raised its state of alert. Finally, Assads own former Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has stated that Assad repeatedly rejected calls by his own government for a political compromise, instead favouring all-out-war, according to The Telegraph. Death Toll in Syria (03 Nov 2012) As the Syrian regime loses control over portions of the country, the subsequent power vacuum that is created feeds extortion and sectarianism, exposing civilians to criminals and extremists, according to AFP. Activists report that civilians are fearful at checkpoints manned by armed militia whose allegiances are unknown. Many believe fighters now targeting Christians and Kurds are members of the al Nusra Front, a militant jihadist group operating in Syria. Fighting has broken out between Kurds and Arabs in northern Syria for control of the country, reports the Washington Post. On 31 October, Free Syrian Army and Kurdish leadership in Turkey were working to negotiate an end to the clashes in which numerous hostages have been seized and more than forty fighters on both sides killed. Twenty-eight government troops in Idlib province were killed on 01 November in rebel attacks on army checkpoints along the main road between Damascus and Aleppo, according to BBC. The successful capture of the
Source: Syrian Revolution Martyr Database as of 03 Nov 2012

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checkpoints came as regime helicopters and jets carried out intense air strikes. In other developments, rebel fighters seized a major oilfield in the eastern province of Deir ez Zor and shot down a Syrian war plane on 04 November, according to AFP. Reports reveal that the Jaafar Tayyar Brigade seized the al Ward oilfield the first oilfield seizure by rebels since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011. Rebels also targeted the key northern Syrian airforce base of Taftanaz from where helicopter gunships frequently launch raids on opposition positions, according to al Jazeera. An Internet video reported that eight rebel battalions, including the militant al Nusra Front, were taking part in the battle. Syrian expert Thomas Pierret of the University of Edinburghs Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies states that [t]he rebels gains in the north seem irreversible and that the opposition forces appeared to focus efforts on the embattled commercial city of Aleppo, which rebels have cut off from Damascus over two months of fighting. On 05 November, BBC reports that a suicide bombing in Hama province, targeting a Syrian army checkpoint, killed several people as well as fifty soldiers. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the attack was the work of the al Nusra Front. Also, a car bomb in Damascus killed four people and injured at least twenty others. According to reports, the Aisha brigade claimed responsibility for the Damascus attack. Regime air strikes on 05 November resulted in the deaths of at least twenty Syrian rebel fighters in the town of Haram in Idlib province, according to Reuters. The commander of the Idlib Martyrs Brigade was killed along with other members. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in collaboration with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), reported on 03 November that it had successfully delivered humanitarian assistance to those in the Old City of Homs, according to AFP. Assistance consisted of baby milk, diapers, food, hygiene items and medical necessities. Addressing a media briefing in Geneva, UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Marixie Mercado reported that the ongoing violence continued to impact infant care, particularly among newborns, as Syrian hospitals lacked adequate numbers of incubators for the infants. Syrian Ministry of Health officials indicated that 400 incubators were needed across the country.

IED & Demining

GLOBAL NEWS Bahrain Five homemade bombs were detonated in the countrys capital of Manama on 05 November killing two people and wounding another, according to Reuters. The blasts bore the hallmarks of the Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, according to government officials. United States A bomb threat at an Orange County, Florida polling station on 03 November temporarily closed the facility, according to The Guardian. In the aftermath of the bomb scare, a judge ordered an extension to early voting at the polling station. Colombia On 31 October, Colombian authorities report that two men were killed and 37 people wounded when a suitcase bomb exploded during Halloween festivities in the town square of Pradera in Valle del Cauca State, according to Associated Press (AP). More than 5,000 children had gathered to celebrate the holiday. For more IED & Demining news click here or click on the map above.

Linda Lavender linda.lavender@cimicweb.org

The CFC now publishes a weekly IED and Demining Events map. This global compilation identifies and links to articles pertaining to IED events as well as demining efforts.

Syrian Opposition

IRAQ Complex Coverage

MALI Complex Coverage

SYRIA Complex Coverage

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06 November 2012

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