Violence Remained Steady In Iraq August 2018

The number of incidents and casualties remained basically the same from July to August 2018. There was an average of 6.9 incidents per day during each month, and casualties were 485 dead and wounded in July and 458 in August. The Islamic State continued to rebuild in central Iraq. Baghdad saw a slight uptick in attacks, and Turkey was still hitting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Kurdistan.

There were 214 incidents reported in July and 216 in August. That led to 224 killed and 234 wounded in the latter. That broke down to 2 Turkish soldiers, 29 PKK, 35 Hashd al-Shaabi, 53 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 105 civilians losing their lives, while 2 Turkish soldiers, 56 Hashd, 62 ISF, and 114 civilians were injured. 15 bodies were discovered leaving 209 violent deaths during the month. Overall, casualties have gone down since the start of the year as the Islamic State has been withdrawing and concentrating its forces in the center of the country in its effort to rebuild its insurgency.

Casualties In Iraq By Province July-August 2018

Province	July	August
Anbar	33 (14 K, 19 W)	70 (32 K, 38 W)
Babil	5 (3 K, 2 W)	6 (6 W)
Baghdad	69 (30 K, 39 W)	86 (32 K, 54 W)
Basra	-	2 (1 K, 1 W)
Diyala	63 (38 K, 25W)	49 (19 K, 30 W)
Dohuk	2 (2 K)	1 (1 K)
Irbil	22 (18 K, 4 W)	-
Kirkuk	118 (33 K, 85 W)	39 (13 K, 26 W)
KRG	30 (30 K)	32 (30 K, 2 W)
Muthanna	-	1 (1 W)
Najaf	1 (1 K)	-
Ninewa	87 (78 K, 9 W)	69 (51 K, 18 W)
Salahaddin	55 (20 K, 35 W)	103 (45 K, 58 W)

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province July-August 2018

Province	July	August
Anbar	8	11
Babil	4	3
Baghdad	49	58
Basra	1	4
Diyala	46	44
Dohuk	1	1
Irbil	6	1
Karbala	-	1
Kirkuk	37	32
KRG	7	7
Muthanna	1	1
Najaf	1	-
Ninewa	29	27
Qadisiya	1	-
Salahaddin	23	25
Sulaymaniya	-	1

Anbar remained a secondary front for the Islamic State. There was a suicide car bomb that hit a checkpoint in Qaim in the west that left 56 dead and wounded. The last time there was a successful vehicle bomb in the province was back in January. That being said there were only 11 incidents in Anbar in August and 9 the month before. That was an average of 0.3 per day. The bombing in Qaim was obviously an escalation, but that didn’t change the fact that IS is not concentrating their main effort there anymore.

A similar situation exists in Ninewa. There has been less than one incident per day there since April. While there are occasional infiltration attempts from Syria and a few confrontations with insurgents, but violence remains at a very low level in the governorate.

Violence has been down slightly over the last two months in central Iraq, which has meant Baghdad has led the country in incidents during that period. There were 49 in July and 58 in August. That averaged out to 1.5 and 1.8 per day respectively. Considering the size of the capital province and its population that is barely anything. All the attacks are small in scale as well consisting of a steady diet of shootings and IEDs.

Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahaddin remained the center of the insurgency. The Islamic State is active in all the rural areas of Diyala and Kirkuk and in the center and north in Salahaddin. While the number of incidents has been down in all three since June, the types of attacks point to the group attempting to rebuild. The militants are asserting control of towns and taxing them, and attacking those that don’t cooperate. There are monthly reports of crops being burned, livestock being killed, kidnappings, houses being destroyed, etc. There are also attacks upon checkpoints and local security forces. There are stories of IS being in control of many rural areas at night, and even being out in the open during the day in some places. This is a repeat of the tactics and strategy IS used once before when it was defeated after the Surge, and reformed its cadres. That is also the theme the group is pushing in its propaganda.

It appears that Turkey has finally ended its advance into Kurdistan chasing after the PKK. There has been no news of any movement by Turkish forces for quite some time. They appear to be digging in and expanding their bases, while carrying out a steady stream of air strikes and artillery barrages. That left 28 PKK and 1 civilian dead in August. The PKK carried out one retaliation attack that killed 2 Turkish soldiers and left two more wounded.

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	-	-

Kirkuk	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	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

Salahaddin	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	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	-

(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)

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

Violence By Province August 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	11 Incidents 32 Killed 1 Civilian 31 ISF 38 Wounded 8 Civilians 30 ISF 4 Shootings 4 IEDs 1 Suicide Car Bomb 5 Suicide Bombers Killed 1 Motorcycle Bomb Dismantled
Babil	3 Incidents 6 Wounded 6 Hashd 2 IEDs 1 Rocket
Baghdad	58 Incidents 32 Killed 1 ISF 4 Hashd 27 Civilians 54 Wounded 2 ISF 52 Civilians 21 Shootings 16 IEDs 3 Sticky Bombs 3 Sound Bombs
Basra	4 Incidents 1 Killed 1 Civilian 1 Wounded 1 Civilian 1 Shooting 2 IEDs 1 Grenade
Diyala	44 Incidents 19 Killed 5 ISF 14 Civilians 30 Wounded 3 Hashd 8 ISF 19 Civilians 17 Shootings 18 IEDs 3 Mortars
Dohuk	1 Incident 1 Killed 1 Civilian 1 Turkish Air Strike
Irbil	1 Incident 1 Shooting
Karbala	1 Incident 1 IED
Kirkuk	32 Incidents 13 Killed 3 Hashd 5 Civilians 5 ISF 26 Wounded 5 Hashd 10 ISF 11 Civilians 7 Shootings 13 IEDs 2 Sticky Bombs 5 Sound Bombs 1 Suicide Car Bomb 2 Mortars 1 Suicide Bomber Killed
Kurdistan	7 Incidents 30 Killed 2 Turkish Soldiers 28 PKK 2 Wounded 2 Turkish Soldiers 1 Shooting 2 Turkish Air Strikes
Muthanna	1 Incident 1 Wounded 1 Civilian 1 Shooting
Ninewa	27 Incidents 51 Killed 1 Hashd 3 ISF 46 Civilians 18 Wounded 2 ISF 5 Hashd 11 Civilians 9 Shootings 8 IEDs 1 Motorcycle Bomb 1 Turkish Air Strike 2 Suicide Bombers Killed
Salahaddin	25 Incidents 45 Killed 8 ISF 10 Civilians 27 Hashd 58 Wounded 10 ISF 11 Civilians 37 Hashd 9 Shootings 14 IEDs 1 Sticky Bomb 1 Suicide Bomber 1 Mortar 2 Suicide Bombers Killed
Sulaymaniya	1 Incident 1 Shooting

SOURCES

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

Iraq Newspaper, "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

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