Attacks Drop Across Iraq But Casualties Remain High In August 2014

 

August saw the fewest security incidents in Iraq of 2014 yet casualties remained exceedingly high. The month saw the second most deaths and wounded of the year. The figures remained large despite the drop in attacks due to massacres by the Islamic State in its conquered territory and a report on peshmerga losses in Ninewa. Fighting remains heated in several parts of Iraq meaning that casualties will continue at these levels for the foreseeable future.

There were just 830 security incidents in August. That passed the previous low of 878 seen in June. For the month, Baghdad saw the most with 207 attacks, followed by 170 in Salahaddin, and 144 in Anbar. There was a decided drop in violence in August from 265 incidents from August 1-8, to 178 from August 9-14, 150 from August 15-21, a little increase to 179 from August 22-28, and the 58 in the last three days of the month.

These attacks led to 2,668 deaths and 3,640 wounded. Only June saw more with 2,851 killed and 3,677 injured. In August the dead were made up of 299 peshmerga, 281 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), 65 Sahwa, and 2,023 civilians, while the wounded included 608 peshmerga, 466 ISF, 20 Sahwa, and 2,546 civilians. The high Kurdish losses were due to one report at the beginning of August that said 200 peshmerga were killed and 500 wounded in fighting in Ninewa. In total, 254 peshmerga were killed and 516 injured in that province last month. Another 40 died and 73 were wounded in Diyala around Jalawla, 4 killed and 13 injured in Salahaddin, and 1 death and 6 wounded in Kirkuk. For the ISF they suffered the most dead in Salahaddin, 77, Baghdad, 56, Babil, 45, Anbar 44, Diyala 39, and ten each in Ninewa and Kirkuk. There were also several massacres in the press. August 3 after the fall of Sinjar 70 Yazidis were killed. Two days later another 300 were said to have been executed. August 15 the town of Kojo was taken by the Islamic State resulting in 84 more Yazidis losing their lives. Other examples were the execution of 14 kidnapped police in Shirqat in Salahaddin on August 2. That same day 20 other bodies were discovered there. On August 9 200 bodies were found at Camp Speicher outside of Tikrit, Salahaddin. There were plenty of other incidents as well with IS the likely culprit. So far in 2014 there have been a total of 15,003 fatalities reported in the press along with 24,417 wounded.

Violence In Iraq By Month 2014

Month	Security Incidents	Dead	Wounded	Shootings	Bombs	Car Bombs
Jan	1,014	1,483 427 ISF 69 Sahwa 2 Asayesh 985 Civilians	2,880 646 ISF 48 Sahwa 2,186 Civilians	468	501	96
Feb	945	1,274 516 ISF 58 Sahwa 2 Peshmerga 698 Civilians	2,526 702 ISF 93 Sahwa 3 Peshmerga 1,728 Civilians	428	474	84
Mar	996	1,606 567 ISF 48 Sahwa 2 Asayesh 989 Civilians	2,901 631 ISF 57 Sahwa 1 Asayesh 2,212 Civilians	417	550	82
Apr	999	1,456 538 ISF 46 Sahwa 1 Asayesh 871 Civilians	2,905 806 ISF 53 Sahwa 1 Asayesh 2,040 Civilians	376	583	79
May	905	1,468 506 ISF 77 Sahwa 1 Peshmerga 884 Civilians	2,610 719 ISF 50 Sahwa 1,841 Civilians	370	506	81
Jun	878	2,851 844 ISF 31 Sahwa 62 Peshmerga 1,914 Civilians	3,677 750 ISF 47 Sahwa 198 Peshmerga 1 Asayesh 2,681 Civilians	436	343	58
Jul	923	2,197 426 ISF 28 Sahwa 60 Peshmerga 1,683 Civilians	3,278 738 ISF 24 Sahwa 175 Peshmerga 2,341 Civilians	450	685	42
Aug	830	2,668 281 ISF 65 Sahwa 299 Peshmerga 2,023 Civilians	3,640 466 ISF 20 Sahwa 608 Peshmerga 2,546 Civilians	364	387	59
Totals	7,490	15,003 4,105 ISF 422 Sahwa 5 Asayesh 424 Peshmerga 10,047 Civilians	24,417 5,458 ISF 392 Sahwa 3 Asayesh 984 Peshmerga 17,575 Civilians	3,309	6,838	581

Violence In Iraq By Week 2014

Date	Incidents	Dead	Wounded
Jan 1-7	244	363	736
Jan 8-14	272	364	683
Jan 15-21	205	358	616
Jan 22-28	236	305	618
Jan 29-31	57	93	237
JAN	1,014	1,483	2,890
Feb 1-7	204	296	700
Feb 8-14	226	258	505
Feb 15-21	264	346	703
Feb 22-28	251	374	618
FEB	945	1,274	2,526
Mar 1-7	253	412	702
Mar 8-14	206	324	612
Mar 15-21	216	423	736
Mar 22-27	211	279	580
Mar 28-31	110	168	271
MAR	996	1,606	2,901
Apr 1-7	238	259	550
Apr 8-14	223	362	646
Apr 15-21	251	406	786
Apr 22-28	226	347	744
Apr 29-30	61	82	179
APR	999	1,456	2,905
May 1-7	198	246	483
May 8-14	257	469	752
May 15-21	183	256	426
May 22-28	204	407	817
May 29-31	63	90	132
MAY	905	1,468	2,610
Jun 1-7	224	588	1,021
Jun 8-14	227	658	887
Jun 15-21	170	729	564
Jun 22-28	170	720	775
Jun 29-30	56	127	236
JUN	877	2,822	3,483
Jul 1-7	200	511	622
Jul 8-14	211	577	625
Jul 15-21	225	398	1,000
Jul 22-28	223	549	801
Jul 29-31	65	162	230
JUL	924	2,197	3,278
Aug 1-8	265	951	885
Aug 9-14	178	709	1,152
Aug 15-21	150	348	499
Aug 22-28	179	542	815
Aug 29-31	58	118	289
AUG	830	2,668	3,640

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Aug 2014

Province	Security Incidents	Dead	Wounded	Types of Attack
Anbar	144	414 44 ISF 32 Sahwa 338 Civilians	694 44 ISF 9 Sahwa 641 Civilians	62 Shootings 9 IEDs 6 Suicide Car Bombs 8 Car Bombs 1 Suicide Bomber 1 Sticky Bomb
Babil	57	99 45 ISF 3 Sahwa 51 Civilians	184 72 ISF 2 Sahwa 110 Civilians	27 Shootings 19 IEDs 3 Suicide Car Bombs 2 Car Bombs 3 Sticky Bombs
Baghdad	207	439 56 ISF 2 Sahwa 381 Civilians	1,017 116 ISF 901 Civilians	64 Shootings 73 IEDs 3 Suicide Car Bombs 20 Car Bombs 2 Suicide Bombers 17 Sticky Bombs
Basra	12	10 10 Civilians	21 21 Civilians	8 Shootings 3 IEDs
Diyala	93	249 39 ISF 40 Peshmerga 170 Civilians	258 24 ISF 73 Peshmerga 161 Civilians	48 Shootings 27 IEDs 4 Suicide Car Bombers 2 Car Bombs 22 Suicide Bombers
Karbala	9	14 14 Civilians	40 40 Civilians	1 Shooting 8 IEDs 2 Car Bombs
Kirkuk	58	124 10 ISF 3 Sahwa 1 Peshmerga 110 Civilians	321 6 Peshmerga 310 Civilians	20 Shootings 29 IEDs 3 Car Bombs
Ninewa	73	795 10 ISF 254 Peshmerga	563 17 ISF 516 Peshmerga 30 Civilians	43 Shootings 22 IEDs 2 Car Bombs 2 Suicide Bombers
Qadisiyah	6		5 5 Civilians	6 IEDs
Salahaddin	170	524 77 ISF 25 Sahwa 4 Peshmerga 418 Civilians	537 188 ISF 9 Sahwa 13 Peshmerga 327 Civilians	91 Shootings 74 IEDs 1 Suicide Car Bomb 2 Car Bombs 5 Suicide Bombers 4 Sticky Bombs
Wasit	1			1 Car Bomb

Another driver of the high casualties in August were wave after wave of car bombs. There were 59 car bombs for the month, which was nowhere near the highest figure in 2014. What was different was the frequency of these attacks. There were six waves during the month with only one day in between them except for the last one when there was a two day hiatus. Usually there are several days in between series, sometimes lasting up to almost a week. The Islamic State’s capture of ISF weapons dumps were the likely cause of this sustained campaign. These attacks left 381 fatalities and 699 injured.

Car Bomb Attacks In Iraq Aug 2014

Date	Location	Dead	Wounded
Aug 1	Haditha, Anbar Sadr City, Baghdad	16	25
Aug 2	Rawa, Anbar Balad & Dujail, Salahaddin	8	42
Aug 3	Outside Haditha, Anbar
Aug 4	?, Anbar		5
Aug 5
Aug 6	Outside Fallujah, Anbar New Baghdad x2, Sadr City x2, Ur x2, Baghdad Aliya Rash, Ninewa	48	96
Aug 7	Kadhimiya, Baghdad Kirkuk, Kirkuk	25	90
Aug 8	Fallujah & West of Ramadi, Anbar Sadr City, Baghdad	2	7
Aug 9
Aug 10	Haditha, Anbar Jalawla x3, Diyala
Aug 11	Diyala Bridge, Baghdad Aziziya, Wasit	4	8
Aug 12	Karrada  & Zafaraniya, Baghdad	17	51
Aug 13	Amil, Baya & New Baghdad, Baghdad	18	43
Aug 14	Jalawla, Diyala	5	13
Aug 15	Ramadi, Anbar
Aug 16
Aug 17	Yusifiya, Baghdad
Aug 18	Iskandiriya x2, Babil	1	16
Aug 19	Iskandiriya, Babil
Aug 20	Husseiniya & Palestine St, Baghdad	11	30
Aug 21
Aug 22	South of Tikrit, Salahaddin	11	30
Aug 23	Baghdadi, Anbar Karrada, Baghdad Kirkuk, Kirkuk	16	40
Aug 24	Shula, Baghdad	5	12
Aug 25	Hillah x2, Babil Kadhimiya x2, Baghdad Tweij x2, Karbala Mosul, Ninewa	30	84
Aug 26	New Baghdad, Baghdad	12	35
Aug 27
Aug 28
Aug 29	Tuz Kharmato, Salahaddin	8	30
Aug 30	Amiriya Fallujah x2, Anbar Yusifiya, Baghdad Anjana, Diyala	11	25
Aug 31	Ramadi x2	13	17
TOTALS	59	381	699

The government played a large role in the monthly casualty count as well. Indiscriminate shelling, which was mostly concentrated in Anbar cost the lives of 246 people, and wounded another 541. Air strikes led to another 172 deaths and 128 injured. The ISF continues to treat any area under insurgent control as a legitimate target and consistently hits civilians almost every day. Bad intelligence and coordination between the different branches of the armed forces likely accounted for the indiscriminate nature of these strikes along with a disregard for civilian casualties.

Casualties From Government Shelling 2014

Date	Dead	Wounded
Aug 1-7	77	196
Aug 8-14	29	66
Aug 15-21	69	137
Aug 22-28	73	114
Aug 29-31	18	94
TOTAL	246	541

Casualties From Air Strikes 2014

Date	Dead	Wounded
Aug 1-7	58	56
Aug 8-14	39	49
Aug 15-21	11
Aug 22-28	26	23
Aug 29-31	38
TOTAL	172	128

SOURCES

Agence France Presse, "13 killed in bomb attacks on Iraq forces in Ramadi," 8/31/14

Alsumaria, "Cleaning villages and the killing of nine elements of Daash north of Baquba," 8/11/14

- "Killing and wounding 16 people, including four children in as mortar shells fall on Fallujah," 8/24/14

- "Killing and wounding 19 people including a child and two women in the fall of mortars on Fallujah," 8/23/14

- "Killing and wounding 28 people including women and children in the fall of mortars in Fallujah," 8/22/14

Buratha News, "200 bodies found near Base Speicher believed to be students killed by Daash gang," 8/9/14

eKurd, "After Peshmerga pullout, hundreds of missing Iraqi Kurdish Yazidis feared dead," 8/4/14

Al Forat, "14 Intelligence officers executed by ISIL in Shurqat," 8/2/14

- "20 unidentified corpses discovered in Shurqat," 8/20/14

Iraq Times, "Martyrdom and wounding 650 elements of the Peshmerga in battles with the Daash terrorist organization," 8/8/14

Al Jazeera, "Suicide attack kills soldiers near Baghdad," 8/30/14

NINA, "Two car bombs exploded south of Fallujah," 8/30/14

- "Urgent../25/ civilians and security forces killed and injured in a car bomb in downtown Ramadi," 8/31/14

Osgood, Patrick and Tahir, Rawaz, "Iraq's Yezidi minority faces massacre," Iraq Oil Report, 8/6/14

Radio Free Iraq, "26 August 2014," Daily Updates from Anbar, 8/26/14

Al Rayy, "Explosion of "Hummer bomb" by suicide bombers traveling near Baquba, north of defensive zone," 8/30/14

- "Two civilians were injured by a car bomb amid Tuz," 8/29/14

Rudaw, "At Least 8 Killed, 30 Wounded by Bomb, Mortars in Tuz," 8/29/14

Sly, Liz, "Islamic State fighters kill dozens of Yazidi villagers," Washington Post, 8/16/14