Key Takeaways:
KDP and PUK Exchange Recriminations; Ammar al-Hakim Threats to Oppose the Government; Iraq Continues Mediating Between Iran and Gulf States – On June 2, Iraqi President Barham Salih met with the German, French and UK ambassadors in Baghdad. On June 2, the KDP published the full text of the deal it signed with the PUK in March regarding government formation, in an implicit jab at the PUK for boycotting the May 28 vote to elect Nechirvan Barzani as KRG President. On June 2, Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi claimed in a speech that the Kurdistan Region had not turned over to Baghdad any of the 250,000 barrels of oil per day required by the 2019 budget law. On June 2, President Salih conveyed a proposal from Iran to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates regarding a non-aggression treaty between the countries. On June 3, The National reported that Iraq had opposed the concluding statement of the Mecca Summit, authored by Saudi Arabia, which condemned Iran’s activities in the region. On June 5, the head of the Hikmah Movement, Ammar al-Hakim, criticized the incomplete cabinet formation and threatened to withdraw support from the government. more…
String of Bombings in Kirkuk Reignites Political Contestation; Militant Attacks Continue Throughout Iraq Despite Counter-Terrorism Operations; Intense Turkish Campaign against the PKK in Northern Iraq and Militant Attack in Diyala Displaces Dozens of Families – On May 30, a series of six explosions struck Kirkuk city, killing three people and injuring 37. Local Arab and Turkmen representatives called on the prime minister to dismiss Kurdish officers in the province. The KDP, for its part, urged for the return of Peshmerga forces to Kirkuk. On May 30, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters struck targets in the northern Iraqi region of Hawkurk. According a Kurdish official, at least 120 villages in the Kurdistan Region’s district of Sidakan have been evacuated due to Turkish airstrikes on the area. On May 30, two members of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) were shot by armed attackers north of Babylon. On June 2, three people were shot in an armed attack in the village in Diyala. The gunmen were members of an unidentified militia, raising alarms about potential sectarian motivations and prompting the exodus of more than 50 families. On June 3, gunmen attacked the offices of the Islamic Dawa Party and the Communist Party in Basra. On June 4, ISIS militants carried out a complex two-stage attack south of Salahuddin Province, near Baghdad, killing four members of the Iraqi security forces and injuring 17 others. more…
Iraqi Courts Will Begin Offering Documentation to Children Born under ISIS Control; Yazidi Refugees Return from Syria as New Mass Graves Investigated in Sinjar; New HRW Brief Documents Torture of French Prisoners Accused of ISIS Ties – The Iraqi Army launched an investigation into a footage of Iraqi soldiers sexually assaulting a mother and her child in Mosul. On May 31, Human Rights Watch published a brief detailing torture employed against French suspected ISIS militants detained in Iraq. On June 1, an Iraqi member of parliament confirmed that courts are being established to issue birth certificates and identification cards to Iraqi children who were born in ISIS controlled areas. On June 3, the Iraqi government revealed new statics for Yazidi displacement and casualties since August 2014. According to the data, 6,417 Yazidis were captured and enslaved by ISIS, only 3,476 of whom survived. On June 6, teams exhuming Yazidi mass graves sent 138 bodies from Kocho to be identified through DNA testing. On June 6, UNICEF reported that 2,000 schools have been re-opened across Mosul and northern Iraq since 2017, allowing half a million children to resume their education. more…
For more background on most of the institutions, key actors, political parties, and locations mentioned in our takeaways or in the stories that follow, see the ISHM Reference Guide.