Author Archive | Arabella Wickham

Weekly Security Update - Assaye Risk

As 2013 came to a close, months of sustained violence and devastating atrocities in Iraq saw  a civilian death toll on a par with those recorded in 2008 and more than double the figure for 2012.  The deepening of the fault lines splitting the country, the intensifying of the Sunni / Shia violence and the […]

Weekly Security Update 05 - 12 Dec 2013

  By Tom Walker, Director, Assaye Risk COUNTRY SECURITY OVERVIEW Iraqi’s have born the brunt of a particularly violent week in which the key cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad have all come under attack from high impact bombings and coordinated well-planned combined arms assaults.  In what is now nearing one of the most violent […]

Weekly Security Update 14 - 20 November

By Tom Walker, Director, Assaye Risk COUNTRY OVERVIEW The Ankara dance with Erbil and Baghdad continued for much of this reporting period as Turkey’s President Erdogan continues to tread a fine balance between multiple regional stakeholders in the hope of neutralizing the al Qaeda (AQ) threat in northern Syria and of maximizing to potential of […]

Weekly Security Update 07 - 13 November 2013

By Tom Walker, Director, Assaye Risk COUNTRY OVERVIEW The ebb and flow of violence continued in Iraq this week with many religious pilgrims targeted and killed by suicide bombers, predominantly in Baghdad and Nineveh provinces. Kurdish fighters have also continued to secure and fortify their positions in northern Syria and along the Iraqi border having […]

Weekly Security Update 24 - 30 October 2013

By Tom Walker, Director, Assaye Risk COUNTRY OVERVIEW It has been a bloody week for many Iraqis as insurgents and militia groups have pressed home a number of coordinated high impact attacks resulting in large numbers killed and wounded.  Transnational influences have also dominated reporting as regional leaders seek to find ways to control and […]

Weekly Security Update 26 Sep - 02 Oct 2013

By Tom Walker, Director, Assaye Risk COUNTRY OVERVIEW Nearly 900 civilians were killed across Iraq in September as sectarian violence worsened, raising the death toll for 2013 to more than last year's total, the United Nations reported this week.  Sunni Islamist militants have perpetrated the overwhelming majority of violence, with the ISI leading the campaign. […]