Security In Iraq Aug 15-21, 2019

(Shafaaq News)

Violence in Iraq has flatlined since June 2019. Security incidents have been in the teens to twenties over the last eleven weeks. This is despite the Islamic State announcing a new spring-summer offensive in May when attacks spiked. This is another example of how the Islamic State is more interested in rebuilding its cadres in Iraq right now more than carrying out operations.

There were 20 incidents recorded from August 15-21, 2019. One was a mass grave discovered south of Mosul in Ninewa province. For the last eleven weeks there have been an average of 20 incidents per week. This is the lowest level of violence in the country since the 2003 invasion. The U.N. and the U.S. reported that the militants are trying to preserve their leadership and core fighters in Iraq right now, while carrying out more attacks in Syria.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Aug 1-7	Aug 8-14	Aug 15-21
Anbar	1	-	1
Babil	3	1	1
Baghdad	7	1	-
Diyala	7	7	8
Kirkuk	1	6	8
Ninewa	2	1	2
Salahaddin	5	2	-
Sulaymaniya	1	-	-
TOTAL	27	18	20

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Aug 1-7	Aug 8-14	Aug 15-21
Anbar	2 (2W)	-	-
Babil	5 (5W)	1 (1W)	1 (1K)
Baghdad	13 (3K, 10W)	2 (2K)	-
Diyala	13 (5K, 8W)	12 (6K, 6W)	14 (3K, 11W)
Kirkuk	1 (1K)	9 (3K, 6W)	28 (24K, 4W)
Ninewa	3 (2K, 1W)	1 (1K0	5 (5K)
Salahaddin	8 (3K, 5W)	1 (1K)	-
TOTAL	45 (14K, 31W)	26 (13K, 13W)	48 (33K, 15W)

There were 48 casualties during the week. That included 5 civilians, 6 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 22 Hashd al-Shaabi losing their lives, and 2 civilians, 3 Hashd, and 10 ISF being wounded. Kirkuk with 28 had the most dead and wounded during the week.

Anbar had only one incident which was when a car bomb was discovered and destroyed during a security sweep in the Hit district in the center. This was only the second incident of the month. IS has deprioritized the province and is mostly using it to move men and material in from Syria and then transferring them into the center of Iraq.

There were no incidents in Baghdad. IS has been slowly trying to infiltrate the governorate and had 7 attacks the first week of the month. Since then there has only been one more showing this is still a major challenge for the group that has to get back to the capital to show that it is still relevant.

There was another attack in Babil, this time in Iskandiriya in the north when a Hashd member was killed by a sniper. That’s five total since the start of June. This is the most since September 2018. This province was another area that the militants had largely withdrawn from, but they might be exploring their opportunities there.

The center of Iraq is where IS is most concentrated. There were 8 incidents in Diyala. Half of those were in the Jalawla-Khanaqin districts in the northeast, which has been the insurgents’ favorite target for months now as there are not enough security forces there and a gap between the federal and Kurdish units. Kirkuk also had 8 attacks including IS claiming 5 on August 18 with four attacks upon the security forces and one on a mukhtar in the Daquq district in the south. Besides the mass grave a U.S. unit was also said to have come under mortar fire in Ninewa. American troops have been known to travel between bases and to accompany ISF units in different parts of the governorate. Finally, there were no incidents in Salahaddin. This used to be a core IS area as well, but attacks have continually fluctuating there the last few months. IS is most active in central and northeast Diyala, southern Kirkuk and southern and western Ninewa and northern Salahaddin. This is where it is looking to force people out and assert de facto control of their towns and villages to establish new camps. There are also long term bases such as in the Hamrin Mountains. The goal is to rebuild its forces and leadership, so that it can fight another day.

Islamic State Activity in Iraq 2018-19

Diyala	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	219	198	47	43	5	13	25	3	1
Jan 2019	21	2	3	8	-	-	1	-	-
Feb	18	2	5	7	-	-	3	-	-
Mar	7	6	1	2	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	13	15	2	4	1	-	1	-	-
May	11	13	3	5	-	-	13 (9 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jun	15	8	2	4	-	1	-	1	-
Jul	7	12	2	4	-	-	2	-	-
Aug	9	8	2	3	-	1	-	-	-
2019 Totals	99	65	20	37	1	2	20	1	-

Kirkuk	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	172	182	39	18	10	14	29	9	6
Jan 2019	8	17	-	4	2	3	-	-	1
Feb	9	5	3	-	-	2	1	-	-
Mar	5	11	2	1	2	-	2	-	-
Apr	5	9	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
May	11	18	2	3	1	-	13 (13 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jun	5	10	1	2	-	-	-	-	-
Jul	2	10	-	-	-	1	2	-	-
Aug	6	5	4	-	-	1	-	-	-
2019 Totals	51	86	15	10	5	7	18	-	1

Ninewa	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	139	74	43	7	5	6	6	2	3
Jan 2019	6	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Feb	8	3	2	2	-	-	1	-	1
Mar	6	1	3	-	-	-	1	-	1
Apr	6	6	1	-	1	2	2	-	-
May	8	8	1	-	1	2	6 (5 Farms Burned)	-	1
Jun	2	5	-	-	1	-	4 (4 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jul	2	2	-	-	1	1	2	-	-
Aug	1	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
2019 Totals	39	26	7	2	5	5	17	-	3

Salahaddin	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	110	102	41	18	1	16	4	9	5
Jan 2019	5	5	3	1	-	3	-	-	1
Feb	7	11	3	-	-	2	1	1	-
Mar	3	5	2	-	-	-	-	-	1
Apr	2	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
May	10	9	4	1	1	-	6 (5 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jun	4	3	2	-	1	-	-	-	-
Jul	3	6	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
Aug	5	1	1	-	-	1	1	-	1
2019 Totals	39	42	18	3	2	6	8	1	4

(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 2018-19

Month	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs	Totals
Jan	7 (1- Diyala, 3 – Baghdad/Baghdad, 3 - Kirkuk)	6 (1- Anbar, 1 – Diyala, 1 – Kirkuk, 1 – Salahaddin, 2 - Babil)	13
Feb	4 (1 – Anbar/Ramadi 1 – Diyala 1 – Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	-	4
Mar	2 (1 – Kirkuk/Kirkuk 1 - Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	3
Apr	4 (1 - Salahaddin 3 – Anbar)	1 (1 – Kirkuk/Kirkuk)	5
May	8 (1 – Diyala 1 - Salahaddin) 2 – Baghdad/1 - Baghdad 4 - Kirkuk)	-	8
Jun		1 (1 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	1
Jul	1 (1 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	1 (1 – Kirkuk/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	2 (1 – Anbar/Fallujah 1 – Salahaddin)	3 (1 – Anbar/Fallujah 1 – Kirkuk/Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	5
Nov	-	3 (1 – Ninewa/Mosul 2 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	3
Dec	-	1 (1 – Ninewa)	1
Jan	1 (1 – Anbar)	3 (1 – Anbar 1 – Kirkuk 1 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	4
Feb	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Ninewa/Mosul)	2
Mar	-	1 (1 – Ninewa/Mosul)	1
Apr	-	2 (1 – Anbar 1 - Salahaddin)	2
May	1 (1 – Baghdad)	3 (2 – Anbar 1 – Ninewa)	4
Jun	1 (1 – Diyala)	-	1
Jul	2 (2 – Baghdad/Malif)	-	2
Aug	-	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1

Security In Iraq 2018-19

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
Jan 1-7	62/60	45	63
Jan 8-14	58/56	58/56	66/63
Jan 15-21	62/59	151	151
Jan 22-28	59/51	140/136	65/63
Jan 29-31	24	21	21
JAN 2018	265/ 250 by IS	417/ 409 by IS (196 Violent Deaths)	366/ 361 by IS
Feb 1-7	58/56	192/141	62/60
Feb 8-14	57	58	91
Feb 15-21	53/52	343	43
Feb 22-28	46/44	38/37	70/68
FEB	214/ 209 by IS	631/ 579 by IS (215 Violent Deaths)	266/ 262 by IS
Mar 1-7	68/64	115/108	79/77
Mar 8-14	52	75	59
Mar 15-21	64/59	165/119	98
Mar 22-28	77/64	210/87	61/60
Mar 29-31	19/18	26/25	34
MAR	280/ 257 by IS	591/ 414 by IS (446 Violent Deaths)	331/ 328 by IS
Apr 1-7	38/34	172/140	27/25
Apr 8-14	60/52	173/136	81/72
Apr 15-21	43/35	63/18	72/70
Apr 22-28	40/31	60/30	39/33
Apr 29-30	12/11	14/11	4
APR	193/ 163 by IS	482/ 335 by IS (236 Violent Deaths)	223/ 204 by IS
May 1-7	45/39	52/43	55/54
May 8-14	55/51	68/46	49
May 15-21	35/32	55/26	80/75
May 22-28	49/46	72/62	51/49
May 29-31	16/13	39/30	15
MAY	200/ 181 by IS	286/ 207 by IS (261 Violent Deaths)	250/ 242 by IS
Jun 1-7	50/44	96/87	29/28
Jun 8-14	67/59	107/47	88
Jun 15-21	40/35	82/28	19
Jun 22-28	45/44	53/38	62
Jun 29-30	17/15	21/16	14
JUN	219/ 197 by IS	359/ 216 by IS (315 Violent Deaths)	212/ 211 by IS
Jul 1-7	50/49	56/52	90
Jul 8-14	42/39	56/47	31
Jul 15-21	50/45	59/42	63
Jul 22-28	29/24	61/53	19/15
Jul 29-31	23/21	25/13	11
JUL	194/ 178 by IS	257/ 207 by IS (212 Violent Deaths)	214/ 210 by IS
Aug 1-7	43/39	49/45	30/29
Aug 8-14	43/42	38	44
Aug 15-21	38/35	24/21	40/37
Aug 22-28	35/31	25/19	61
Aug 29-31	27/24	68/30	43
AUG	186/ 171 by IS	204/ 153 by IS (189 Violent Deaths)	218/ 214 by IS
Sep 1-7	38	44	54
Sep 8-14	48/43	63/55	127
Sep 15-21	44/38	90/74	70
Sep 22-28	36/33	22/17	27/26
Sep 29-30	9/6	19/10	29/25
SEP	175/ 158 by IS	237/ 200 by IS (179 Violent Deaths)	307/ 302 by IS
Oct 1-7	54/49	85/25	92
Oct 8-14	43/41	161/152	41
Oct 15-21	54/50	87/72	35
Oct 22-28	24/23	24/20	53
Oct 29-31	23	10	24
OCT	198/ 186 by IS	367/ 279 by IS (177 Violent Deaths)	245 by IS
Nov 1-7	32/31	75/69	36
Nov 8-14	39/31	111/63	19
Nov 15-21	30/27	51/43	29
Nov 22-28	26/21	35/25	30
Nov 29-30	9/8	4	27
NOV	136/ 118 by IS	276/ 204 by IS (183 Violent Deaths_	141 by IS
Dec 1-7	22/15	21/8	11
Dec 8-14	22	15	22
Dec 15-21	23/21	23/16	17
Dec 22-28	30/28	24/18	37
Dec 29-31	15/14	225/220	4
DEC	112/ 100 by IS	308/ 277 by IS (96 Violent Deaths)	91 by IS
Jan 1-7	32/31	17/10	24
Jan 8-14	32/30	97/94	53
Jan 15-21	22/18	17/11	16/14
Jan 22-28	27/22	36/17	31
Jan 29-31	12	7	6
JAN	114	139	130/128
Feb 1-7	29/28	76	30
Feb 8-14	24	26	18
Feb 15-21	40	112	12
Feb 22-28	25	36	70
FEB	118	250	130
Mar 1-7	13	22	45
Mar 8-14	19/18	75/10	37
Mar 15-21	12/11	66/37	21/11
Mar 22-28	13/12	8/5	1
Mar 29-31	6	8	7
MAR	61	147	101
Apr 1-7	20	22	13
Apr 8-14	41	28	42
Apr 15-21	17/16	9/8	26
Apr 22-28	19/18	45/10	15
Apr 29-30	2	1	4
APR	99	105	100
May 1-7	20/19	15	18
May 8-14	24	31	41
May 15-21	37/36	62	39
May 22-28	43	39	54
May 29-31	13	16	48
MAY	137/136	163	200
Jun 1-7	26	19	44
Jun 8-14	25/24	29	15
Jun 15-21	21/16	6	13/10
Jun 22-28	18	17	41
Jun 29-30	9	3	9
JUN	99/93	74	122/119
Jul 1-7	20	11	39
Jul 8-14	14	31	10
Jul 15-21	17	14	37
Jul 22-28	23	14	20
Jul 29-31	8	13	13
JUL	82	83	119
Aug 1-7	27	14	31
Aug 8-14	18	13	13
Aug 15-21	20	33	15

Violence By Province Aug 15-21, 2019

Province	Violence
Anbar	1 Incident 1 Car Bomb Destroyed
Babil	1 Incident 1 Killed 1 Hashd 1 Shooting
Diyala	8 Incidents 3 Killed 1 ISF 2 Hashd 11 Wounded 1 Civilian 3 Hashd 7 ISF 4 Shootings 3 IEDs 1 Grenade 1 Rockets
Kirkuk	8 Incidents 24 Killed 5 ISF 19 Hashd 4 Wounded 1 Civilian 3 ISF 4 Shootings 3 IEDs
Ninewa	2 Incidents 5 Killed 5 Civilians 1 Mortar

SOURCES

Adel, Loaa, "Army aviation destroys car bomb west of Anbar," Iraqi News, 8/19/19

Baghdad Post, "A grenade explodes in Diyala," 8/16/19

Bas News, "IS Attacks Hashd al-Shaabi in Kirkuk," 8/17/18

- "IS Attacks Kurdish Village near Khanaqin with Rockets," 8/18/19

- "IS Militants Attack Iraqi Army Unit, Kill One," 8/21/19

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Five Iraqi servicemen wounded in twin bomb attack in Diyala," Iraqi News, 8/20/19

Iraq Newspapers, "Fierce Battle Between The Iraqi Police And ISIS Terrorist in The Village Of Ali Sarai Daquq In Kirkuk," 8/18/19

Al Maalomah, "The Popular Mobilization foils an ISIS attack in Hawija," 8/16/19

- "US patrol targeted by mortar shell in Qayara desert in Mosul," 8/17/19

NINA, "An explosive device dismantled near a house of a citizen in Qara Tebeh area in Diyala," 8/16/19

- "The Popular Mobilization foiled an ISIS infiltration attempt northeast of Diyala," 8/16/19

- "The Remains Of Five ISIS Victims Found South Of Mosul," 8/17/19

Sotaliraq, "Peshmerga repels ISIS attack in Khanaqin," 8/16/19

Al Sumaria, "A member of the Federal Police killed while on duty in the Kirkuk operations sector," 8/15/19