Security In Iraq Sep 8-14, 2018

(Iraqi News)

There was a slight increase in the number of security incidents in Iraq during the second week of September. Two large attacks, one by the Islamic State, and another by Iran meant there was a large jump in casualties.

There were 54 incidents reported from September 8-14. While that was above the mean of 40 a week, incidents have fluctuated from week to week. In July for instance, there were two weeks with 50 incidents. Salahaddin with 10 and Baghdad with 13 led the country in violence.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Sep 8-14, 2018

Basra 1

Irbil 1

Sulaymaniya 1

Kurdistan 2

Ninewa 4

Anbar 5

Diyala 8

Kirkuk 9

Salahaddin 10

Baghdad 13

Casualties In Iraq By Province Sep 8-14, 2018

Irbil 3 (3 K)

Kurdistan 5 (5 K)

Diyala 10 (6 K, 4 W)

Kirkuk 12 (8 K, 4 W)

Baghdad 13 (5 K, 8 W)

Anbar 15 (3 K, 12 W)

Ninewa 16 (10 K, 6 W)

Salahaddin 39 (13 K, 46 W)

Sulaymaniya 61 (14 K, 47 W)

A total of 67 people were killed and 127 wounded. That was the highest total since June. 8 bodies were discovered in the Old City of West Mosul leaving 59 violent deaths for the week. 4 Hashd al-Shaabi, 5 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), 6 Peshmerga, 8 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), 14 Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), and 29 civilians lost their lives, and 4 Hashd, 11 ISF, 47 PDKI and 65 civilians were injured. The majority of those casualties took place in Salahaddin and Sulaymaniya with 39 and 61 casualties respectively.

Attacks in Anbar have been on a steady decline for over a year now. Since April for instance there has been an average of 0.2-0.5 incidents per day. In recent weeks however, the Islamic State has been attempting more sophisticated operations in the province. On August 29, a suicide car bomb hit a checkpoint in Qaim. The first week of September, there was a gun battle between insurgents and a group of Hashd and soldiers in Razaza in the south that involved a suicide bomber being killed. Then during the second week a suicide bomber hit a hospital in Haditha and a suicide motorcycle bomber detonated his device in Qaim. There had not been a successful suicide bombing in Anbar since April and no car bombs had gone off since January. This could mark the return of IS to the governorate or at least an escalation in the types of attacks.

This was the fourth week in a row that Baghdad led the country in incidents with 13. That was not because of any increase in violence there, but rather a decline in incidents in central Iraq. Attacks remained the usual mix of shootings and IEDs.

Central Iraq remained the focus of the Islamic State. Incidents have ebbed and flowed there however. There were 8 incidents in Diyala including an attack upon a village in the Khanaqin district in the northeast that also included IS taking away 4 people who were later found beheaded. Kirkuk had 9 incidents that involved a bombing of an oil pipeline, a bombing of an electricity tower, an attack upon a health center where 2 people were kidnapped in the Daquq district, and four bodies were discovered in the Hawija district that included three Peshmerga. Finally, in Salahaddin there were 10 incidents. 3 suicide bombers carried out an attack upon an army unit in Shirqat in the north, a suicide car bomb hit a restaurant north of Tikrit leaving 7 dead and 42 wounded, and there was an assassination of an intelligence officer inside his home. While the number of incidents have been down in all three provinces in recent weeks, the types of operations by IS show that it continued to rebuild there. They are asserting control over villages, challenging the security forces, and might be now turning to mass casualty bombings as the attack upon the restaurant in Salahaddin might foreshadow. The security forces have been unable to stop this process, due to a lack of intelligence from locals and ineffective clearing operations.

In northern Kurdistan a series of Turkish air strikes left 8 PKK members dead. Ankara has stopped its incursion into the region, which began in March but continues to carry out routine bombing and shelling of PKK positions.

Finally, Iran shelled the headquarters of the PDKI in Sulaymaniya which left 14 dead and 47 wounded. There have been a series of clashes along the Iraq-Iran border involving the PDKI and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in recent weeks, and Tehran assassinated some of their leaders earlier in the year as well within Kurdistan. This was the latest confrontation.

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	10	6	-	1	-	2	1	1	-	-

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	5	15	-	1	1	1	1	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	3	5	-	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	5 (2 – Anbar 3 – Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	6

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

Violence By Province Sep 8-14, 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	5 Incidents 3 Killed 1 Civilian 2 ISF 12 Wounded 5 ISF 7 Civilians 3 IEDs 1 Suicide Bomber 1 Suicide Motorcycle Bomber
Baghdad	13 Incidents 5 Killed 5 Civilians 8 Wounded 8 Civilians 5 Shootings 3 IEDs 1 Sound Bomb
Basra	1 Incident 1 Mortar
Diyala	8 Incidents 6 Killed 1 ISF 2 Civilians 3 Peshmerga 4 Wounded 1 ISF 3 Civilians 6 Shootings 1 IED 1 Mortar
Irbil	1 Incident 3 Killed 3 PKK 1 Turkish Air Strike
Kirkuk	9 Incidents 8 Killed 1 ISF 2 Hashd 2 Civilians 3 Peshmerga 4 Wounded 1 Civilian 3 ISF 3 Shootings 13 IEDs
Kurdistan	2 Incidents 5 Killed 5 PKK 2 Turkish Air Strikes
Ninewa	4 Incidents 10 Killed 1 Hashd 9 Civilians 6 Wounded 2 Civilians 4 Hashd 2 IEDs 1 Car Bomb Destroyed
Salahaddin	10 Incidents 13 Killed 1 Hashd 2 ISF 10 Civilians 46 Wounded 2 ISF 44 Civilians 2 Shootings 4 IEDs 3 Suicide Bombers 1 Suicide Car Bomb 3 Suicide Bombers Arrested 3 Car Bombs Destroyed
Sulaymaniya	1 Incident 14 Killed 14 PDKI 47 Wounded 47 PDKI 1 Iranian Shelling

SOURCES

Anadolu Agency, "Turkish jets neutralize 4 terrorists in northern Iraq," 9/13/18

- "Wanted PKK terrorist 'neutralized' in northern Iraq, Turkish military says," 9/16/18

Bas News, "IS Kidnaps, Beheads Kurdish Civilians in Khanaqin," 9/10/18

- "Three IS Suicide Bombers Attack Iraqi Army," 9/10/18

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "UPDATED: Death toll from today's car bomb attack in Anbar rises to 10," Iraqi News, 8/29/18

Al Forat, "Gunmen wearing police uniforms assassinate a member of Salahuddin intelligence," 9/13/18

- "URGENT Security source: the death of two police members in the explosion in Haditha," 9/10/18

- "URGENT Suicide attack targeting a popular café in Qaim and casualties," 9/14/18

Al Hurra, "Iraq…Killed in a clash with gunmen between Anbar and Karbala," 9/5/18

Iraq Newspaper, "Daash Terrorists Admit To Two Bombings In The Jihad Neighborhood Of Central Baghdad And Khanaqin," 9/10/18

- "The Iraqi Newspaper Published The Names And Pictures Of Victims Of The Suicide Bombing In Anbar Province 7 Officers And 21 Soldiers Killed And 22 Wounded," 8/29/18

NINA, "Eight dead bodies recovered from inside the old city of Mosul are victims of crimes of Daesh," 9/14/18

- "URGENT: Electricity cut off from Hawija and Al-Dour as a result of sabotage," 9/14/18

Al Noor News, "Turkish Army Kills PKK Militants In Northern Iraq," 9/8/18

Rudaw, "Bodies of 3 Peshmerga, 1 civilian found in Hawija," 9/13/18

- "ISIS blows up oil pipeline in Kirkuk: security official," 9/9/18

- "ISIS militants storm health facility in Daquq, kidnap 2," 9/13/18

- "Update: Car bombing in Iraq's Anbar kills 11, injures 16," 8/29/18

Shafaaq News, “Khanaqin: 84 villages without security and at least one terrorist incident a day,” 9/11/18

- "URGENT Iraqi forces thwart suicide attack on three provinces, including Karbala," 9/5/18

Al Sumaria, "At least two people killed and several wounded in clashes north Razaza," 9/5/18

Vahdat, Amir, “Iran Guard claims missile attack on separatist Kurds in Iraq,” Associated Press, 9/9/18

Xinhua, "7 killed in car bomb explosion in Iraq's Salahudin province," 9/12/18

- "14 killed in Iranian shelling on Kurdish opposition in northern Iraq," 9/8/18