[4] Co-operation between Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq on a larger scale began in March 2013, as the groups staged an elaborate ambush near Akashat that left 51 Syrian and 9 Iraqi soldiers dead.

[22][23] In early June, reports emerged from the rebel-held Syrian city of Raqqa of Islamist fighters setting up "complaint bureaus", where anyone accused of crimes could be held accountable in front of a Sharia court.

[24] As the Iraqi Army operation was taking place, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri issued an official statement on June 9, ruling against the merger of the two groups ordered by al-Baghdadi and appointing a local Syrian commander named Abu Khalid al-Suri as an emissary "to oversee the implementation of the accord".

[27] On June 2, gunmen in four vehicles set up a fake checkpoint on a highway in the western parts of Al Anbar Province, ambushing a convoy of three Syrian and four Iraqi trucks.

[13][28] Clashes were reported near Ar Rutba after the ambush, with government artillery units shelling suspected insurgent hideouts south of the city.

[15] Ahead of the postponed governorate elections in both provinces on June 20, government forces closed all roads in Al Anbar with the exception of the international highway.

[30] While the election day itself passed relatively peacefully in the border areas, on June 21 a group of gunmen attacked Iraqi Army positions northwest of Al-Qa'im, blowing up a bridge across the Euphrates and sparking a battle that forced the government troops to call in helicopter gunships as reinforcements.

[7][31] On June 22, a parked car bomb was detonated near Khor, east of Al-Qa'im, as an Iraqi Army convoy was passing by the scene of the previous day's fighting.

[16] On 25 June the governor of Nineveh, Ethel al-Nujaifi, escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb exploded in the center of Mosul just as his convoy was passing by.

[33] On 26 June, a convoy of six cars was stopped near Al-Waleed, close to the Iraqi-Syrian border, sparking a shootout that left one gunman dead.

A security source confirmed that this resulted in the destruction of 3 buildings used by militants, as well as at least two fuel tanks and a vehicle repair shop near Elshabani, on the border between the two provinces.

[39] On July 10, the chief of military operations for Nineweh, Lieutenant-General Basim al-Tai, escaped two separate assassination attempts, the first by an IED on the Mosul-Baghdad road, and the second a suicide car bombing against his convoy.