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Since May 2013, Iraqi Shi’a militias have carried out kinetic operations in Baghdad and Diyala provinces to either target Iraqi Sunni civilians or launch possible retaliatory attacks.
The Iraqi Security Forces supported by volunteers and Iranian-backed militias continue their counteroffensive campaign to relieve ISIS's siege of the isolated Shi ‘a Turkmen town of Amerli.
Jalula is the geographic nexus among Iraqi Kurds, Iran and its backed militias in Iraq, and ISF interests.
ISIS conducted five VBIED attacks on Saturday, just one short of the signature VBIED wave that characterized its spectacular attacks before the fall of Mosul.
The attack on worshipers in Diyala was most likely carried out by Iraqi Shi’a militias or Iraqi Shi’a volunteers.
Since August, 8, the U.S. carried out 90 airstrikes against ISIS in northern Iraq. Of these strikes, 57 supported the ISF and Iraqi Kurdish forces on and around the Mosul Dam.
On August 19, ISIS released its first video in response to the U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq. The video showed the beheading of a U.S. journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012.
The Peshmerga launched a counter offensive in northern Iraq against ISIS.
On August 14, 2014 ISIS clashed with the military wing of the Sadrist movement, the Promised Day Brigade (PDB), now called the Peace Companies, west of Samarra.
Nouri al-Maliki announced he would step down and support Haider al-Abadi’s nomination as Prime Minister, ending the political crisis that intensified on August 10, 2014 and existentially threatened Iraq’s political system.