Security In Iraq Oct 15-21, 2018

(Iraqi News)

Incidents have been higher in October than previous months. This has been due to continued Islamic State rebuilding in central Iraq, and the group returning to Anbar and Baghdad. Turkey continues to hit the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kurdistan as well every week.

There were 56 incidents from October 15-21. That went along with 50 the week before and 60 the first week of October. Previously there had been 40-50 incidents per week since April.

Kirkuk with 13 and Baghdad with 12 led the country in incidents. This was the first time since August that the capital province didn’t have the most violence. Attacks in Kirkuk on the other hand, have gone back up recently.

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

Babil 1

Dohuk 2

Kurdistan 2

Anbar 6

Ninewa 6

Salahaddin 6

Diyala 8

Baghdad 12

Kirkuk 13

Casualties In Iraq By Province Oct 15-21, 2018

Kurdistan 3 (3 K)

Salahaddin 8 (6 K, 2 W)

Anbar 10 (8 K, 2 W)

Dohuk 12 (12 K)

Baghdad 15 (6 K, 9 W)

Diyala 16 (8 K, 8 W)

Kirkuk 23 (8 K, 15 W)

Ninewa 38 (37 K, 1 W)

There were 88 deaths and 37 wounded reported in Iraq from October 15-22. 2 Hashd al-Shaabi, 15 PKK, 19 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 52 civilians lost their lives. 8 Hashd, 13 civilians, and 16 ISF were injured as well. 28 bodies were found in Mosul and the Sinjar district leaving 60 violent deaths during the week.

It’s apparent now that IS has returned to Anbar. There were 6 incidents there during the week. That included a shooting at a checkpoint, two home invasions where an Imam and tribal Hashd fighter were killed, and an attack upon an ISF base outside Ramadi. Before most of the Islamic State’s activity was concentrated in the center, now they are returning to some of their old haunts like Anbar.

A similar story is playing out in Baghdad. There attacks have gone from single digits to the teens over the last several months. There were 12 the third week of October, the same as the week before. These all remain small scale like shootings and IEDs, but they are now taking place within the northern and southern sections of the city such as Shaab and Dora when before they were in the outer villages like Mahmduiya, Tarmiya, etc.

Incidents have been down in Diyala and Salahaddin since the summer, but have gone back up in Kirkuk. There were 6 incidents in Salahaddin, 8 in Diyala, and 13 in Kirkuk. In Diyala, 2 IEDs were set off outside the house of a Peshmerga member and a mukhtar was assassinated in Khanaqin in the northeast, a family of three was killed inside its house in Jalawla also in the northeast, and an ISF member had his house shot at in Muqtadiya in the center. In Kirkuk, there was a shootout with insurgents in Rashad in the south, two villages were attacked, a bus was shot up on the highway to Baghdad, and 7 suicide bombers were killed in two separate incidents. In Salahaddin there were a series of IEDs. These three provinces are the heart of IS’s rebuilding effort. It has re-established itself in several rural areas and expanded its control. It attacks villages that resist its presence or don’t pay taxes, it has gone after local officials and security forces. It also has access to Kirkuk city. The government has been completely ineffective in stopping this re-birth. Its forces have little presence in these places, the population is intimidated and not providing good intelligence, and the constant security sweeps result in little.

There were also 6 incidents in Ninewa. That included a councilman being killed and two attacks upon the security forces that killed 4 police and wounded 1 other. This is another area where the insurgents are growing bolder although the total number of incidents remains very low.

Finally, there were three Turkish air strikes upon PKK positions in Kurdistan. In a rare event, the Kurdish group attacked Turkish forces at a base they have at Mount Chyadel which is by the Iraq, Iran, Turkey border. Every week now Ankara hits the Kurds in northern Kurdistan. This is the first time in months that the PKK has counter attacked within Iraq. Usually, all their operations are within Turkey.

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	20	12	5	1	-	2	5	5	-	-
Oct	10	16	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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	14	25	2	2	1	3	4	2	-	-
Oct	9	24	1	3	1	1	2	1	-	1

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	10	1	1	-	-	1	1	3	1
Oct	2	9	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)

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
Oct	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	2 (1 – Anbar 1 - Kirkuk)	3

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	57	67	127
Sep 15-21	50	93	71
Sep 22-28	47	27	33
Sep 29-30	11	20	29
SEP	210	253 (195 Violent Deaths)	321
Oct 1-7	60	88	94
Oct 8-14	50	169	48
Oct 15-21	56	88	37

Violence By Province Oct 15-21, 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	6 Incidents 8 Killed 3 Civilians 5 ISF 2 Wounded 2 ISF 5 Shootings 1 IED
Babil	1 Incident 2 Sticky Bomb
Baghdad	12 Incidents 6 Killed 6 Civilians 9 Wounded 9 Civilians 8 Shootings 1 IED 1 Sticky Bomb 1 Sound Bomb
Diyala	8 Incidents 8 Killed 2 Hashd 6 Civilians 8 Wounded 1 Civilian 7 Hashd 4 Shootings 7 IEDs
Dohuk	2 Incidents 12 Killed 12 PKK 2 Turkish Air Strikes
Kirkuk	13 Incidents 8 Killed 2 Civilians 6 ISF 15 Wounded 3 Civilians 12 ISF 5 Shootings 8 IEDs 7 Suicide Bombers Killed
Kurdistan	2 Incidents 3 Killed 3 PKK 1 Turkish Ari Strike
Ninewa	6 Incidents 37 Killed 5 ISF 32 Civilians 1 Wounded 1 ISF 3 Shootings 1 IED
Salahaddin	6 Incidents 6 Killed 3 Civilians 3 ISF 2 Wounded 1 Hashd 1 ISF 5 IEDs

SOURCES

Baghdad Post, "4 ISIS suicide bombers killed in Kirkuk," 10/17/18

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Iraqi family killed as unidentified gunmen storm house in Diyala," Iraqi News, 10/21/18

Al Hurra, “Victims… The exhumation of the remains of 851 children,” 10/18/18

Iraq Newspaper, "Mukhtar Assassinated In The Village Of Karim Daoud Of Khanaqin District (Kassim Kandah Mahmoud)," 10/21/18

Al Maalomah, "Martyrdom of a member of the crowd in armed attack west of Ramadi," 10/20/18

- "Three men were killed while trying to attack a security checkpoint west Anbar," 10/19/18

Mostafa, Mohamed, "Islamic State attack security outpost in western Iraq," Iraqi News, 10/19/18

Mostafa, Nehal, "Four Iraqi police personnel killed in two Islamic State attacks in Mosul," Iraqi News, 10/21/18

- "Imam of mosque killed in wake of sermon urging fighting Islamic State militants in Anbar," Iraqi News, 10/19/18

- "Iraqi police kill three suicide attacks, southwest of Kirkuk," Iraqi News 10/19/18

Nawzad, Kosar, "Turkey shells Kurdistan Region, claims it killed 12 PKK members," 10/17/18

NINA, "3 Terrorists From PKK Neutralized In A Turkish Raid In Northern Iraq," 10/18/18

- "A Child Killed An Attack On A House Of A Security Personnel," 10/16/18

- "The martyrdom of an officer and wounding two policemen from the federal police in clash with Daash elements west

NRT, "Clashes Erupt Between PKK Fighters And Turkish Army In Kurdistan Region," 10/21/18

Shafaaq News, "The assassination of a government official and a policeman in Ninewa," 10/16/18

- "URGENT: Violent clashes in Kirkuk," 10/21/18

Sotaliraq, "A mass grave of Yazidis was found southwest of Tal Afar," 10/15/18

- "Two explosions in Khanaqin," 10/15/18

Al Sumaria, "Injuries during Daash attack targeting a bus carrying civilians on the Baghdad-Mosul road," 10/17/18