Security In Iraq Sep 15-21, 2018

(Reuters)

Security in Iraq remained stable for another week. Incidents have remained relatively the same for the last five months. Casualties have been up the last two weeks. During the third week that was because a large number of bodies were recovered from the rubble of West Mosul.

There were 50 incidents reported in Iraq from September 15-21. The week before there were 54 incidents. Since April there have been an average of 40 incidents per week, but sometimes that rises to 50. Kirkuk with 10 and Baghdad with 13 led the country in incidents during the week.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Sep 15-21, 2018

Babil 1

Basra 1

Anbar 4

Diyala 5

Kurdistan 5

Salahaddin 5

Ninewa 6

Kirkuk 10

Baghdad 13

Casualties In Iraq By Province Sep 15-21, 2018

Babil 3 (3 W)

Anbar 4 (2 K, 2 W)

Salahaddin 10 (6 K, 4 W)

Baghdad 15 (6 K, 9 W)

Kurdistan 16 (16 K)

Diyala 23 (4 K, 19 W)

Kirkuk 31 (12 K, 19 W)

Ninewa 62 (47 K, 15 W)

93 people lost their lives and another 73 were wounded during the week. 5 Hashd al-Shaabi, 16 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), 33 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 39 civilians died and 15 Hashd, 27 ISF, and 29 civilians were injured. Ninewa had the most casualties at 62 because 43 bodies were dug out of the rubble of the Old City in west Mosul. That left 50 violent deaths overall during the week.

The Islamic State has been picking up its operations in Anbar recently. There has been a wave of suicide and car bombings recently. From September 15-21 however things were back to normal with just 4 incidents. That included three car bombs that were discovered during a sweep through the Akashat district in the west. A grenade was also thrown at a mukhtar in Fallujah. IS had mostly withdrawn from the province, but the recent attempts at mass casualty bombings showed a worrying trend that will have to be watched to see whether or not Anbar is a new front in the insurgency.

Baghdad once again led the country in incidents with 13. This has been because violence is down in central Iraq over the last few weeks. The types of incidents there has remained the same with a mix of IEDs, sticky bombs, and shootings.

IS continued its rebuilding in the center of the country. In Diyala, there was another attack upon a village in the Khanaqin district in the northeast. In Kirkuk, a car bomb went off at the Dawa offices in Kirkuk city, another town was attacked and an electricity tower was blown up in Hawija in the south and two people were kidnapped in the Riyad district at a fake checkpoint. Finally, there was one confrontation between the militants and security forces and a mukhtar was assassinated in Salahaddin. These all highlighted the tactics the insurgents have been using in recent months. They are attempting to control rural areas, charging taxes, attacking those towns that do not comply, eliminating local government officials by killing mukhtars, kidnapping people, and challenging the local security forces. There has also been an increase in recent weeks in car and suicide bombings pointing towards an escalation by IS in the types of operations they are attempting.

Ninewa, like Anbar has been relatively quiet in recent months. There was a suicide bomber however that hit an army unit leaving 1 dead and 8 wounded. The last suicide bomber was in February. Again, this points to the militants returning to mass casualty bombings.

Finally, there were five Turkish air strikes against PKK targets in northern Kurdistan. That left 16 members of the party dead. These have been regular occurrences, especially since Ankara launched a large incursion into northern Iraq in March. That has since ended, but the air strikes and artillery barrages continue.

Islamic State Activity in Central Iraq 2018

Diyala	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Mortars	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
Jan	20	24	2	7	-	1	-	6	1	1
Feb	14	13	4	3	-	-	-	-	1	-
Mar	29	21	14	5	1	2	1	5	-	-
Apr	13	18	2	2	-	-	-	2	-	-
May	11	11	1	3	1	1	3	4	1	-
Jun	32	17	5	12	-	1	5	4	-	-
Jul	20	19	2	3	-	2	3	1	-	-
Aug	17	18	2	2	1	1	3	3	-	-
Sep	11	9	-	1	-	2	2	3	-	-

Kirkuk	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Mortars/ Rockets	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
Jan	13	6	4	1	-	-	-	3	3	1
Feb	21	10	7	3	-	-	-	4	1	-
Mar	22	15	11	2	-	2	1	3	1	1
Apr	18	4	3	1	-	-	8	1	-	1
May	14	28	2	-	2	1	1	4	4	-
Jun	25	12	4	2	-	2	10	6	-	-
Jul	7	20	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	1
Aug	7	20	2	1	2	-	-	2	-	1
Sep	10	17	-	2	1	3	2	2	-	-

Salahaddin	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Mortars/ Rockets	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
Jan	11	9	8	-	-	-	-	2	-	1
Feb	7	5	1	1	-	2	-	-	-	-
Mar	23	8	9	2	-	3	-	-	1	-
Apr	6	8	2	2	-	-	-	-	1	-
May	14	10	10	1	1	-	-	1	1	-
Jun	15	15	4	1	-	7	-	-	-	1
Jul	9	6	-	4	-	-	2	1	1	-
Aug	9	15	1	3	-	1	1	1	1	-
Sep	5	7	1	1	-	-	1	1	3	1

(Gun Battles, Attacks on Checkpoints, Attacks on Mukhtars, Attacks on Towns are all subsets of the total number of shootings and IEDs/Sticky Bombs reported)

Suicide-Car Bombs In Iraq 2018

Month	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs	Totals
Jan	7 (1- Diyala, 3 – Baghdad, 3 - Kirkuk)	6 (1- Anbar, 1 – Diyala, 1 – Kirkuk, 1 – Salahaddin, 2 - Babil)	13
Feb	4 (1 – Anbar 1 – Diyala 1 – Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	-	4
Mar	2 (1 – Kirkuk 1 - Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	3
Apr	4 (1 - Salahaddin 3 – Anbar)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	5
May	8 (1 – Diyala 1 - Salahaddin) 2 – Baghdad 4 - Kirkuk)	-	8
Jun		1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1
Jul	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	2
Aug	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	2 (1 – Anbar, 1 – Kirkuk)	3
Sep	6 (1 – Ninewa) 2 – Anbar 3 – Salahaddin)	2 (1 – Kirkuk 1 – Salahaddin)	8

Security In Iraq 2017-18

Week	Security Incidents	Dead	Wounded
JAN 2017	719	1,923	4,374
FEB	628	1,891 + 399	2,511 + 1,634
MAR	720	3,504 + 278	3,302 + 2,925
APR	578	2,933	1,955
MAY	528	2,038	1,563
JUN	534	2,038	1,563
JUL	478	1,490	650
AUG	359	1,949	584
SEP	306	728	549
OCT	286	913	865 + 1,700
NOV	296	1,282	425
DEC	261	763	300
Jan 1-7	71	50	66
Jan 8-14	64	62	70
Jan 15-21	68	156	151
Jan 22-28	68	148	66
Jan 29-31	27	23	22
JAN 2018	298	439 (218 Violent Deaths)	375
Feb 1-7	66	196	67
Feb 8-14	65	63	93
Feb 15-21	59	346	43
Feb 22-28	55	44	72
FEB	245	649 (233 Violent Deaths)	275
Mar 1-7	78	120	84
Mar 8-14	60	84	61
Mar 15-21	67	168	98
Mar 22-28	81	213	61
Mar 29-31	21	26	35
MAR	307	611 (466 Violent Deaths)	339
Apr 1-7	40	174	29
Apr 8-14	64	175	83
Apr 15-21	44	63	72
Apr 22-28	44	62	48
Apr 29-30	12	12	4
APR	204	486 (240 Violent Deaths)	236
May 1-7	51	57	56
May 8-14	56	68	49
May 15-21	39	58	82
May 22-28	51	73	51
May 29-31	21	42	15
MAY	218	298 (273 Violent Deaths)	253
Jun 1-7	55	100	32
Jun 8-14	72	108	88
Jun 15-21	42	83	19
Jun 22-28	52	58	65
Jun 29-30	18	22	14
JUN	239	371 (327 Violent Deaths)	218
Jul 1-7	56	58	91
Jul 8-14	44	57	31
Jul 15-21	54	61	64
Jul 22-28	36	65	21
Jul 29-31	24	26	11
JUL	214	267 (222 Violent Deaths)	218
Aug 1-7	49	57	30
Aug 8-14	47	43	51
Aug 15-21	45	26	45
Aug 22-28	42	29	64
Aug 29-31	33	69	44
AUG	216	224 (209 Violent Deaths)	234
Sep 1-7	45	46	61
Sep 8-14	54	67	127
Sep 15-21	50	93	71

Violence By Province Sep 15-21, 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	4 Incidents 2 Killed 2 ISF 2 Wounded 2 ISF 2 IEDs 1 Grenade 3 Car Bombs Destroyed
Babil	1 Incident 3 Wounded 3 Hashd 1 IED
Baghdad	13 Incidents 6 Killed 6 Civilians 9 Wounded 2 ISF 7 Civilians 6 Shootings 2 IEDs 2 Sticky Bombs 1 Sound Bomb 1 Grenade
Basra	1 Incident 1 IED
Diyala	5 Incidents 4 Killed 4 Hashd 19 Wounded 2 ISF 7 Civilians 10 Hashd 1 Shooting 3 IEDs 2 Mortars
Kirkuk	10 Incidents 12 Killed 5 Civilians 7 ISF 19 Wounded 6 Civilians 13 ISF 5 Shootings 2 IEDs 1 Car Bomb
Kurdistan	5 Incidents 16 Killed 16 PKK 5 Turkish Air Strikes
Ninewa	6 Incidents 47 Killed 23 Civilians 24 ISF 15 Wounded 7 Civilians 8 ISF 2 Shootings 1 IED 1 Suicide Bomber
Salahaddin	5 Incidents 6 Killed 1 Hashd 5 Civilians 4 Wounded 2 Civilians 2 Hashd 2 Shootings 1 IED 1 Sticky Bomb

SOURCES

Bas News, "IS Attacks Villages near Hawija," 9/16/18

- "Kirkuk: IS Kidnaps Two Civilians at Fake Checkpoint," 9/18/18

Al Ghad Press, "Gunmen blow up an electricity power tower in Hawija, west Kirkuk," 9/19/18

Iraq Newspaper, "Now - A Car Bomb Explosion In Front Of The Maliki Party Headquarters In The Ninety Neighborhood In The Middle Of Kirkuk City And The Fall Of Wounded," 9/19/18

- "Nine Soldiers Were Killed And Wounded In A Suicide Attack With An Explosive Belt In The Village of Salamah in Mosul," 9/15/18

- "Police Found 43 Bodies, Including 23 Officers, In The Old City Of Mosul On Friday," 9/21/18

Al Maalomah, "Eight PKK members killed in northern Iraq," 9/21/18

- "Eleven Daesh were killed and three car bombs destroyed west Anbar," 9/21/18

- "Explosion of a grenade in Fallujah without injuries," 9/15/18

- "Five people were injured by a car bomb explosion in Kirkuk," 9/19/18

Mostafa, Nehal, "Paramilitary troops repel Islamic State attack in Salahuddin," Iraqi News, 9/15/18

NRT, "Mortar Attack By ISIS Wounds Five Civilians In Khanaqin," 9/18/18

Rudaw, "ISIS controls village in Khanaqin after Ashura warning, injuring 3," 9/18/18

Shafaaq News, "Gunmen kill an elected man and injure his wife in Samarra," 9/17/18

World Bulletin, "Turkish airstrike 'neutralizes' 8 terrorists in N. Iraq," 9/19/18