5,198 Dead And Wounded In Iraq In Oct 2016

There were over 5,000 casualties reported in Iraq in October 2016. That was the second highest amount of the year. The large number of dead and wounded was largely due to a huge number of executions by the Islamic State as it lost ground during the Mosul campaign.

There were 586 incidents recorded in October 2016. That was roughly in line with the 573 in September and 574 in August. There were likely more attacks in October because when the Mosul campaign opened in the third week of the month only one or two papers were carrying news about security in the rest of the country.

Baghdad still led the country in violence with 258 incidents. After that there were 153 in Ninewa, 50 in Kirkuk, 44 in Diyala, 32 in Anbar, 28 in Salahaddin, 14 in Basra, 3 in Babil, 2 in Kurdistan, 1 in Dohuk, and 1 in Irbil.

Those incidents led to 2,918 dead and 2,280 wounded. Only June with 2,111 fatalities and 6,449 injured due to the Fallujah operation had more casualties this year. The United Nations reported 1,792 dead and 1,358 wounded and Iraq Body Count had 2,300 killed.

There were just 32 incidents in Anbar. That was the lowest monthly total for the year so far. Despite that the casualties were high at 227 dead and 44 wounded. 196 of the fatalities came from the U.N.’s end of month report on casualties in Iraq via the Anbar Health Directorate. No details were provided on the circumstances of their death. The province was relatively quiet until the middle of the month when the Islamic State seized several parts of Rutba. Local officials originally denied that the insurgents held any ground in the town, but the government had to send in forces from the Ain Assad base to retake it.

Baghdad remained the main target for the Islamic State’s terrorist campaign. There were 258 incidents reported for the month, but there were probably far more. When the Mosul operation started only 39 incidents were recorded that week compared to 60 plus every other week. There were 4 car bombs and 7 suicide bombers during the month up from 4 suicide bombers and 2 car bombs in September. The real killers were the 154 IEDs. The northern and southern sections of the province saw the most attacks. That’s largely because IS maintains bases in those regions, mainly in the outer towns like Tarmiya and Arab Jabour.

Basra, especially Basra City is seeing a constant series of incidents. There were 14 total for the month leading to 6 dead and 3 wounded. Some of it appears political and others criminal. There are also regular flare-ups between tribes. This is largely due to security forces being deployed to other parts of the country to fight the Islamic State, and a rise in criminality that’s happening across the country.

Violence went up slightly in Diyala with 44 incidents, 29 fatalities and 25 injured. IS is rebuilding in the province’s rural areas and carrying out regular low level attacks punctuated with occasional mass casualty bombings. During the month there was 1 suicide car bomb, 2 suicide bombers were killed and 3 car bombs dismantled.

The Islamic State launched a major operation in Kirkuk City and Dibis to draw attention away from Mosul. 100 IS fighters arrived early in the morning to the city, and took up strategic locations throughout the city to pen up the police, attack the government complex, and block reinforcements from Kurdistan from arriving. A week after the attack the security forces were still hunting down IS fighters. The attack led to 99 deaths and 263 wounded. Another IS unit took a power station in Dibis and executed 18, including 5 Iranian contractors. The final deadly incident was an Iraqi air force friendly fire incident that hit a wedding in Daquq that killed 20 and left another 45 injured. The U.S. was originally blamed, but that proved false. Those three incidents accounted for almost all of the 229 deaths and 370 wounded recorded for the month.

Kurdistan saw four incidents. In Irbil an Islamic State drone armed with an IED killed 2 Peshmerga and wounded 2 French Special Forces. In Dohuk there were three Turkish air strikes that killed 10 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members and 3 civilians. Those air raids are constants, but casualties are rarely reported.

Ninewa was obviously the leading story in Iraq due to the launch of the Mosul campaign. That prompted a series of mass executions by the Islamic State. Of the 1,914 fatalities during the month, the militants executed 1,636. 1 U.S. sailor, 2 Kurdish Counterterrorism operatives, 27 Hashd, 71 Peshmerga, and 77 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) lost their lives, and 9 Hashd, 250 ISF, and 264 Peshmerga were injured as well. The real numbers were much higher as the government is suppressing losses as it has done since 2014.

Violence has gone up and down in Salahaddin for the last several months. There were 28 incidents there in October, which was a lull. Most of those were shootings, although there were 4 suicide bombers as well. In total 50 people died and 34 were injured.

There were a total of 38 successful car bombs during the week, a large jump from the 17 the month before. That was due to the Mosul campaign where vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) were one of the main forms of defense. 29 were reported in Ninewa, along with 4 in Baghdad, 3 in Kirkuk, and one each in Anbar and Diyala. Another 172 car bombs were said to be destroyed. This might actually be one of the only months when the successful and destroyed car bombs could be under reported because so many were launched around Mosul.

Violence In Iraq 2016

Date	Incidents	Dead	Wounded
JAN	723	2,418	1,986
FEB	657	1,685	1,724
MAR	681	1,684	2,095
APR	629	1,835	1,904
MAY	673	1,637	2,484
JUN	630	2,111	6,449
Jul 1-7	120	589	635
Jul 8-14	129	242	316
Jul 15-21	123	168	272
Jul 22-28	115	234	366
Jul 29-31	43	95	119
JUL	530	1,328	1,708
Aug 1-7	109	342	255
Aug 8-14	121	176	245
Aug 15-21	155	388	392
Aug 22-28	134	269	312
Aug 29-31	55	88	172
AUG	574	1,263	1,376
Sep 1-7	119	341	381
Sep 8-14	125	197	313
Sep 15-21	137	172	352
Sep 22-28	159	326	469
Sep 29-30	33	167	87
SEP	573	1,203	1,602
Oct 1-7	127	274	331
Oct 8-14	118	175	350
Oct 15-21	131	613	814
Oct 22-28	158	1,165	562
Oct 29-31	49	684	210
OCT	586	2,918	2,280

Security By Province Oct 2016

Province	Incidents
Anbar	32 Incidents 227 Killed: 4 Hashd, 17 ISF, 206 Civilians 44 Wounded: 3 Hashd, 20 ISF, 21 Civilians 11 Shootings 7 IEDs 1 Sticky Bomb 1 Suicide Bomber 1 Suicide Car Bomb 1 Rockets 1 Grenade 18 Suicide Bombers Killed 7 Suicide Car Bombs Destroyed 7 Car Bombs Destroyed
Babil	3 Incidents 2 Wounded: 2 ISF 2 IEDs
Baghdad	258 Incidents 448 Killed: 2 Sahwa, 15 Hashd, 26 ISF, 405 Civilians 1,201 Wounded: 3 Sahwa, 37 Hashd, 50 ISF, 1,111 Civilians 49 Shootings 154 IEDs 19 Sticky Bombs 7 Suicide Bombers 1 Suicide Car Bomb 3 Car Bombs 3 Grenades 3 Mortars 1 Suicide Bomber Arrested 2 Car Bombs Dismantled
Basra	14 Incidents 6 Killed: 6 Civilians 3 Wounded: 3 Civilians 7 Shootings 2 IEDs 2 Sticky Bombs 1 Sound Bomb 1 Grenade
Diyala	44 Incidents 29 Killed: 1 Hashd, 7 ISF, 21 Civilians 25 Wounded: 5 Hashd, 6 ISF, 14 Civilians 20 Shootings 11 IEDs 1 Suicide Car Bomb 7 Mortars 1 Grenade 2 Suicide Bombers Killed 3 Car Bombs Dismantled
Dohuk	1 Incident 4 Killed: 4 PKK 1 Turkish Air Strike
Irbil	1 Incident 2 Killed: 2 Peshmerga 2 Wounded: 2 French Special Forces 1 Drone IED
Kirkuk	50 Incidents 229 Killed: 2 Hashd, 33 Peshmerga, 48 ISF, 146 Civilians 370 Wounded: 2 Hashd, 17 Peshmerga, 22 ISF, 329 Civilians 20 Shootings 11 IEDs 8 Suicide Bombers 3 Car Bombs 2 Rockets 3 Mortars 13 Suicide Bombers Killed
KRG	2 Incidents 9 Killed: 3 Civilians, 6 PKK 2 Turkish Air Strike
Ninewa	153 Incidents 1,914 Killed: 1 US Sailor, 2 Kurd CT, 27 Hashd, 71 Peshmerga, 77 ISF, 1,736 Civilians 599 Wounded: 9 Hashd, 76 Civilians, 250 ISF, 264 Peshmerga 42 Shootings 18 IEDs 14 Suicide Bombers 22 Suicide Car Bombs 7 Car Bombs 8 Mortars 5 Rockets 1 Turkish Artillery 6 Motorcycle Bombs Destroyed 36 Suicide Bombers Killed 15 Suicide Car Bombs Destroyed 138 Car Bombs Destroyed
Salahaddin	28 Incidents 50 Killed: 5 Hashd, 10 ISF, 35 Civilians 34 Wounded: 2 Peshmerga, 12 ISF, 20 Civilians 20 Shootings 5 IEDs 4 Suicide Bombers 1 Rockets

Car Bombs In Iraq Oct, 2016

Date	Car Bombs	Dead	Wounded
Oct 1
Oct 2
Oct 3	Qayara, Ninewa – 6 destroyed
Oct 4
Oct 5	Hit, Anbar – 4 destroyed Khalis, Diyala – 1 destroyed
Oct 6
Oct 7
Totals	0 – 11 Destroyed	-	-
Oct 8	Arab Jabour, Baghdad Baaj, Salahaddin – 3 destroyed	1	4
Oct 9	Azim, Diyala	9	11
Oct 10
Oct 11	Ana, Anbar – 2 destroyed
Oct 12
Oct 13
Oct 14
Totals	2 – 5 Destroyed	10	15
Oct 15	Haditha, Anbar – 2 destroyed
Oct 16	Hadar, Ninewa – 2 destroyed
Oct 17	Yusifiya, Baghdad Khazir, Ninewa – 1 destroyed	10	17
Oct 18	Abasi, Kani Hamran, Nasir, Ninewa Baydha, Jouna, Ninewa – 11 destroyed	1	1
Oct 19	Rutba, Anbar Bashmana x2, Ninewa West Anbar – 2 destroyed Banjawiya, Haj Ali, Muhandis, Sawiya, Sinjar, Ninewa – 14 destroyed	6	6
Oct 20	Bartella x3, Batnay, Pir Hallem x12, Tal Skurf x3, Tiz Khirab, Ninewa Bartella, Mosul Dam, Tiz Khirab, Ninewa – 14 destroyed	10	65
Oct 21	Kirkuk x3, Kirkuk Nawran, Ninewa Haditha, Anbar – 1 destroyed Habibiya, Baghdad – 1 dismantled Nanaah, Ninewa – 4 destroyed
Totals	31 – 52 Destroyed	27	89
Oct 22	Qaraqosh, Tal Kief, Ninewa – 16 destroyed
Oct 23	Rutba, Anbar – 3 destroyed Hurriya, Baghdad – 1 dismantled Bashiqa, Qaraqosh, Shura, Ninewa – 18 destroyed
Oct 24	Sinjar x3, Ninewa Batnaya, Sinjar, ?, Ninewa – 10 destroyed	2
Oct 25	Hamrin, Diyala – 2 destroyed
Oct 26
Oct 27	Qaraqosh, Ninewa – 3 destroyed
Oct 28	?, Shura, Ninewa – 15 destroyed
Totals	3 – 68 Destroyed	2	-
Oct 29	Shura, Ninewa – 20 destroyed
Oct 30	Hurriya, Baghdad	10	30
Oct 31	Shula, Baghdad Aslih, Bazwaya, Um Sijan, Tal Kief, Ninewa – 16 destroyed	4	17
Totals	2 – 36 Destroyed	14	47
TOTALS	38 – 172 Destroyed	53	151