Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)

Not to be confused with Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014).
Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
Part of the Iraq War (2014–present) and
the Military intervention against ISIL
Date1–19 August 2014 (2 weeks and 4 days)
LocationIraqi Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces
Result

Partial ISIL victory

  • ISIL captures Sinjar, the Mosul Dam, and eight other towns
  • ISIL besieges Yazidi refugees on Mount Sinjar, but the siege is broken by Kurdish forces
  • Peshmerga and Iraqi special forces recapture the Mosul Dam, Mount Zartak and two towns
  • ISIL repels Iraqi military attack on Tikrit
Belligerents

Republic of Iraq

United States United States[3]

Kurdistan

Assyria Assyrian/Syriac forces

  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[17]
Commanders and leaders

Haider al-Abadi
Ali Ghaidan
Ahmed Saadi †[18]
Hamid Majid Mousa

    Masoud Barzani
    Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa
    Mustafa Said Qadir
    Murat Karayılan
    Cemil Bayık
    Salih Muslim
    Sipan Hamo
    Polat Can
    Gewargis Hanna
    Yonadam Kanna

    Qasim Şeşo    		 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
    Strength

    25,000[19]–30,000[20] (two army divisions)
    10,000 federal police
    30,000 local police
    2,000 Iranian Quds Force[21]
    1,000 U.S. Troops[22]

    190,000–790,000[23]    		 Islamic State: Around 100,000 fighters in Iraq (according to Iraqi Kurdistan Chief of Staff.)[24]
    Casualties and losses
    14 killed (Zumar only)[25] 100 killed, 160 wounded, 38 captured (Zumar only)[25][26]
    5,000 Yazidis killed[27] 5,000–7,000 Yazidis abducted[28]

    Between 1 and 15 August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) expanded northern Iraqi territories under their control. In the region north and west from Mosul, ISIL conquered Zumar, Sinjar, Wana, Mosul Dam, Tel Keppe and Kocho, in the regions south and east of Mosul the towns Bakhdida (or Queragosh or Qaraqosh), Karamlish, Bartella and Makhmour.

    The offensive resulted in 100,000 Iraqi Christians driven from their homes, 200,000 Yazidi civilians driven from their homes in the city of Sinjar, 5,000 Yazidi men massacred, 5-7,000 Yazidi women enslaved, and a war of several countries against ISIL.

    In the opinion of a member of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, ISIL’s August campaign against Sinjar was more about demography and strategy than about religion: ISIL wanted to push most of the Kurds out of this strategic Kurdish area and bring in Arabs who were obedient to ISIL.[29]

    50,000 of Sinjar's Yazidis took refuge in the adjacent Sinjar Mountains, where they lacked food, water and other basic necessities. 35,000 to 45,000 of them were evacuated within several weeks, after the United States bombarded ISIL positions and efforts from Kurdish PKK, YPG and/or Peshmerga forces assisted their escape. Some ISIL-controlled territory was retaken; a subsequent Kurdish counter-attack recaptured the Mosul Dam and several other towns.

    Background

    In June 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) conquered significant territories in northern Iraq, including the cities of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest town, with over a million residents, and Tikrit, 200 km south of Mosul. While Iraqi federal military forces fled from the advancing ISIL troops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took over the control of a wide territory in northern Iraq outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish region from the federal Iraqi government.[25][30]

    ISIL assault

    Friday 1 August 2014, ISIL attacked a Peshmerga post in Zumar, 40 km northwest of Mosul, in the peshmerga-controlled zone of northern Iraq, and a nearby oil winning facility and the nearby Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest dam and important supplier of electricity and water.[25][31] The Peshmerga fought off ISIL, killing 100 ISIL fighters, according to Kurdish sources, but also losing 14 Peshmerga fighters.[25]

    Sunday 3 August, ISIL, with heavy weaponry seized from the Iraqi federal army,[30][32] in the darkness of morning seized first the town of Zumar and then Sinjar (90 km southwest of Zumar),[31] and the surrounding Sinjar area.[33] ISIL routed from those towns the Kurdish peshmerga troops that since June more or less controlled the region.[31] A spokesman of citizens fled from Sinjar said, that 250 peshmerga in Sinjar had withdrawn from Sinjar in the night, leaving the civilians unprotected.[34]

    ISIL on 3 August also took control of the oil facility in Zumar subdistrict.[25][31] Later that day, ISIL also captured the town of Wana between Zumar and Mosul.[31] There were conflicting reports about whether the Mosul Dam was still in Kurdish hands[31] or captured by ISIL.[35]

    ISIL surrounded the village of Kocho near the Sinjar Mountains, demanding its Yazidi residents to convert or die.[36]

    ISIL on 6 August advanced up to 40 km southwest of Erbil, the capital of autonomous region Iraqi Kurdistan.[32]

    On 7 August, ISIL took control of Qaraqosh (or Bakhdida), the largest Christian town of Iraq, 30 km southeast of Mosul and 60 km west of Erbil, Karamlish, 5 km from Qaraqosh, Tal Keif (Tel Keppe), just north of Mosul, and Bartella, just east of Mosul.[37][38] Kurdish forces had retreated from Qaraqosh and surrounding area, which caused civilians to flee in panic.[39] The Chaldaic archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah, Joseph Thomas, stated that “all inhabitants” of those four cities were fleeing their town.[37]

    ISIL also captured the strategic[40] town of Makhmour,[41] between Mosul and Kirkuk, 20 miles from Erbil.[40] There were conflicting remarks—in one newspaper—as to whether ISIL had ‘seized’ the Mosul Dam or was making ‘efforts to seize’ it.[39] That week, ISIL also overran other towns in northwest Iraq, chasing Kurdish Peshmerga troops away.[30][32]

    At this time, the U.S. started airdropping food and water for the Yazidi refugees stranded in the Sinjar Mountains.[42]

    On 8 August, the U.S. started to conduct airstrikes on ISIL, firstly around Erbil to stop ISIL’s advancemant on the city. Starting on 9 August, airstrikes also took place around the Sinjar Mountains. By this time, ISIL had also seized the Mosul Dam, 40 km northwest of Mosul on the Tigris river.[30]

    Iraqi/Kurdish/US counter-attack

    U.S intervention

    On 5 August, the United States began with directly supplying munitions to the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces and, with Iraq’s agreement, the shipment of weapons to the Kurds.[43]

    Following the start of U.S. airstrikes on 8 August, between 9 and 13 August, the American air-strikes and efforts from Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish Kurds enabled the evacuation of 35,000 to 45,000 of the 50,000 Yazidis stranded in the Sinjar Mountains.

    On 10 August, encouraged by American airstrikes, Kurdish peshmerga forces retook the strategic towns Gwer and Makhmour, both about 20 miles from Erbil.[40] American fighter jets bombarded areas in Makhmour, forcing ISIL fighters to abandon their positions, and Kurdish peshmerga together with Kurdish PKK fighters and civilian volunteers from the area reclaimed the village.[41]

    On 15 August, ISIL moved into the village Kocho, which they had held surrounded since 4 August, shot 80 Yazidi men dead with assault rifles, and abducted their wives and children.[36]

    Reclaiming the Mosul Dam

    From 16 until 18 August, the U.S. conducted 35 air strikes against ISIL positions at the strategically critical Mosul Dam. That facilitated Kurdish and Iraqi forces to move swiftly and in good cooperation around Mosul Dam.[36][44]

    On the morning of 17 August, Kurdish forces, supported by U.S. and Iraqi air strikes, attacked the dam. They quickly captured the eastern part of the dam, but fighting continued.[45] By the evening, Kurdish and Iraqi forces had recaptured most of the facility, but were still in the process of removing mines and booby traps left by ISIL. U.S. warplanes destroyed or damaged 19 ISIL vehicles and one checkpoint during the battle.[46]

    On 18 August, the U.S. president confirmed Kurdish peshmerga ground troops, with the help of Iraqi Special Forces, overran ISIL militants and reclaimed the Mosul Dam.[44]

    Iraqi move on Tikrit

    On the morning of 19 August, Iraqi government troops and allied militiamen launched an operation to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIL. The military push started early in the morning from the south and southwest of the city, which lies around 160 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.[47][48]

    Demonstration in Paris 23 August 2014, to support Kurds and Yazidis threatened by ISIL

    However, by the afternoon, the offensive had been repelled by ISIL.[47] Also, the Iraqi military lost its positions in the southern area of the city it had captured a few weeks earlier.[49]

    Humanitarian reaction

    On 5 August, Iraqi military helicopters started dropping food and water for the Yazidis in the Sinjar Mountains.[33]

    On 7 August, the U.S. also started airdropping food and water for the Yazidi refugees stranded in the Sinjar Mountains.[42]

    On 10 August, the United Kingdom also began airdropping humanitarian aid in northern Iraq.[50]

    Civilian casualties

    The Sinjar conquest, 3 August, was accompanied by a massacre of hundreds or thousands of Yazidi men, the selling of women into slavery, and 200,000 civilians fleeing Sinjar, of whom 50,000 into the Sinjar Mountains.

    ISIL ordered the Yazidi minority in the area to convert to Islam, pay special taxes, or face death, which prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes,[32] not only in Sinjar but for example also 300 Yazidi families in the villages of Koja, Hatimiya and Qaboshi.[30]

    The UN reported in October 2014 that ISIL, “sweeping” through Iraqi territory inhabited by Yazidis in August, had gunned down 5,000 Yazidi male civilians in a series of massacres and detained 5–7,000 Yazidi women to be sold as slaves or given to jihadists.[28]

    On 7 August, the UN reported that since 2 August 200,000 new refugees had been seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north of Iraq from ISIL.[51]

    100,000 Christians, 25% of Iraq’s Christianity, fled Bakhdida (Qaraqosh) and neighbouring villages and towns in the Nineveh Governorate after ISIL’s invasion on 7 August, leaving all their property behind, many of them supposedly to Iraqi Kurdistan.[52] According to local officials, this August ISIL advance nearly purged northwestern Iraq of its Christian (Assyrian) population.[38]

    Public protests

    Protests and demonstrations were organized around the world, particularly in Paris, to support the Kurdish and Yazidi people.

    See also

    References

    1. ↑ Raheem Salman; Ahmed Rasheed (14 June 2014). "Iraq says slows Islamist rebel advance, regains some territory".
    2. ↑ "Tony Blair: 'We didn't cause Iraq crisis". BBC. 15 June 2014.
    3. ↑ "US conducts 2nd airdrop of food, water to Iraqi refugees after airstrikes". Fox News. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    4. ↑ "U.S. Navy Strikes ISIS Targets in Iraq". USNI. 8 August 2014.
    5. ↑ "U.S. provides aid to Yezidis". USAF. 14 August 2014.
    6. ↑ Van Heuvelen, Ben. "Amid turmoil, Iraq's Kurdish region is laying foundation for independent state". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 June 2014. Kurdistan's military forces … have taken over many of the northernmost positions abandoned by the national army, significantly expanding the zone of Kurdish control... "In most places, we aren't bothering them [ISIS], and they aren't bothering us – or the civilians," said Lt. Gen. Shaukur Zibari, a pesh merga commander.
    7. 1 2 3 4 "U.S. airstrikes helped, but Kurds from Syria turned tide against Islamic State". The State. 12 August 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
    8. 1 2 "Rückeroberung von Jalula: YRK und HPJ entsenden Guerillakräfte" (in German). Kürdische Nachrichten. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
    9. 1 2 "YRK-HPJ gerillaları Celawla yolunda" (in Turkish). Firat News Agency. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
    10. ↑ "No Escape from Mount Sinjar". Foreign Policy. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
    11. 1 2 Haqiqi, Fuad (25 August 2014). "In Iran, Limited Support for IS Among Small Number of Salafis". Rudaw English. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
    12. ↑ Muhammad, Kamran (11 August 2014). "PDKI Peshmerga Forces Fought Bravely in the Liberation of Makhmour and Gwer". PDKI Official Website. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
    13. ↑ "Presence of the MFS at the border of Iraq". Syriac International News Agency. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
    14. ↑ https://web.archive.org/20140814072527/http://www.atranaya.com/?p=15784. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
    15. ↑ "Member of Iraq's Parliament Requests Creation of Assyrian Christian Security Force". Aina.org. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    16. ↑ "مسيحيو العراق يتطوعون في قوات الدفاع عن المناطق المسيحية". LBC. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
    17. ↑ Iraq crisis: Isis declares its territories a new Islamic state with 'restoration of caliphate' in Middle East – Middle East – World – The Independent
    18. ↑ "On a Helicopter, Going Down: Inside a Lethal Crash in Iraq". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    19. ↑ "ISIS weighs approach on Baghdad". 11 June 2014.
    20. ↑ "Iraq army capitulates to Isis militants in four cities". The Guardian. 11 June 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
    21. ↑ "Iran sends troops into Iraq to aid fight against Isis militants". The Guardian. 14 June 2014.
    22. ↑ "U.S. mission in Iraq could expand, Pentagon official says". Navy Times. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    23. ↑ Peter Beaumont. "How effective is Isis compared with the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga?". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
    24. ↑ "ISIS militants have army of 200,000, claims senior Kurdish leader". http://www.el-balad.com. Retrieved 16 November 2014. External link in |website= (help)
    25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Jihadists kill dozens as Iraq fighting rages". English.alarabiya.net. 2 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
    26. ↑ "92 IS Militants Killed in Zumar". Basnews. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
    27. ↑ "UN confirms massacre of thousands of Yazidis by jihadis in 'cold blood'". Independent.ie. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    28. 1 2 Hopkins, Steve (14 October 2014). "Full horror of the Yazidis who didn’t escape Mount Sinjar: UN confirms 5,000 men were executed and 7,000 women are now kept as sex slaves". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
    29. ↑ ‘Kurdish official: ISIS Capture of Shingal 'was part of Arabization campaign'’. Rudaw.net, 29 December 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
    30. 1 2 3 4 5 "Obama says tackling Iraq’s insurgency will take time". Reuters. 9 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
    31. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Arango, Tim (3 August 2014). "Sunni Extremists in Iraq Seize 3 Towns From Kurds and Threaten Major Dam". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
    32. 1 2 3 4 "Kurds, Islamic State clash near Kurdish regional capital: Kurdish official". Asharq al-Awsat. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
    33. 1 2 Salih, Mohammed; van Wilgenburg, Wladimir (5 August 2014). "Iraqi Yazidis: 'If we move they will kill us'". Aljazeera. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
    34. ↑ Shelton, Tracey (29 August 2014). "'If it wasn’t for the Kurdish fighters, we would have died up there'". Global Post. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
    35. ↑ "ISIS takes over Iraq’s biggest dam". English.alarabiya.net. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
    36. 1 2 3 "Militants massacre 80 Yazidis; airstrikes target insurgents around Iraq’s largest dam". thestar.com. 16 August 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
    37. 1 2 ‘Des djihadistes prennent la plus grande ville chrétienne d'Irak’ (Jihadists take the largest Christian town of Iraq). Le Figaro, 7 August 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
    38. 1 2 (subscription needed) "Barack Obama Approves Airstrikes on Iraq, Airdrops Aid". WSJ. 8 August 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    39. 1 2 "U.S. airstrikes target Islamic State militants in northern Iraq". The Washington Post. 8 August 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
    40. 1 2 3 ‘Capitalizing on U.S. Bombing, Kurds Retake Iraqi Towns’. New York Times, 10 August 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
    41. 1 2 "In Pictures: The Kurdish frontline in Iraq". Aljazeera.com. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
    42. 1 2 "Obama Authorizes Air Strikes in Iraq – ABC News". ABC News. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
    43. ↑ Khalilzad, Zalmay (5 August 2014). "To fight the Islamic State, Kurdish and Iraqi forces need expedited aid". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
    44. 1 2 "Troops in Iraq Rout Sunni Militants From a Key Dam". The New York Times. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
    45. ↑ "Kurdish forces take parts of Mosul dam from Isis fighters". the Guardian. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    46. ↑ "Kurdish forces 'break IS hold on Mosul dam'". BBC News. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    47. 1 2 "Isis fighters show strength as they repel Iraqi army's attempt to retake Tikrit". the Guardian. 19 August 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
    48. ↑ "Iraqi Forces Launch Major Push to Retake Tikrit". Naharnet. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    49. ↑ "Iraqis battle Islamic State in Tikrit; situation in Mosul stable". latimes.com. 19 August 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
    50. ↑ "Iraq conflict: US in new air strikes on militants". BBC News. 10 August 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
    51. ↑ "Iraq's largest Christian town abandoned as Isis advance continues". the Guardian. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
    52. ↑ "Iraq Christians flee as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh". BBC News. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2015.

    External links

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