Security In Iraq Jun 22-28, 2020

Violence in Iraq hit a low point during the fourth week of June. Attacks by the Islamic State were at single digits while there was another rocket incident by pro-Iran groups in Baghdad. Part of this is due to a number of security sweeps through IS areas along with the end of the group’s Spring offensive.

There were 10 security incidents overall reported in the media in Iraq from June 22-28, 2020. One of those was a rocket attack upon the Baghdad International Airport by pro-Iran groups hoping to send a message to the U.S. in the midst of American-Iraqi negotiations over a new security agreement. That just left 9 incidents by the Islamic State. This was the lowest amount since 8 incidents the second week of November 2019.

Violence only occurred in four provinces. There were one incident each in Kirkuk and Salahaddin, 2 in Baghdad, and 6 in Diyala.

8 people died and 13 were wounded during the week. That consisted of 2 Hashd al-Shaabi and 6 police that lost their lives, along with 5 police and 8 Hashd that were injured. The security forces continued to be the main target of militants. This is a new trend that started in the Spring. Before civilians paid the heaviest price. Now IS is attempting to assert its military dominance over the rural areas it works in by intimidating the army, police and Hashd. All of the casualties this week took place in Salahaddin with 10 and Diyala with 11.

Anbar remains a main focus of the government. The previous week there were 7 security operations. The following week there was just one in the Nukhaib desert area in the south by the Najaf border. The province sees relatively little insurgent activity but is the main smuggling route used by IS to move in men and material from Syria and raise money via smuggling. The sweeps are meant to disrupt this activity, but there’s no evidence whether they are effective or not.

There were two incidents in Baghdad. Besides the rocket attack a police man had two grenades thrown at his house in the Adhamiya district in the north. During June almost all the attacks, 8 out of 10, in the capital governorate have been by pro-Iran groups firing rockets at areas that house American personnel. This led the government to raid the offices of Kataib Hezbollah who were blamed for these barrages.

Diyala is the main base for the insurgency in Iraq. It has been relatively quiet this month because government forces have been going through its core areas. There were six incidents during the week, the most of any this month. That included two towns in the Waqf Basin being hit by mortars, two attacks upon checkpoints, a village was assaulted, and a policeman was shot and killed. All of these occurred in the Muqdadiya district in the center. The government also launched six operations going through the north, south, north east, and center. Half of these were limited to a few villages, while the others were covering larger regions. The Islamic State’s core areas of Muqdadiya and Khanaqin have been searched every week, which explains why incidents have been relatively low. IS leaves as area during sweeps and comes back afterward. The steady beat of operations lately has meant that it can’t carry out as many attacks as usual.

There was a security operation in Irbil’s southern Makhmour district. For several months IS has been hitting this area because it’s a disputed territory and there are gaps in coverage between the Iraqi forces and Peshmerga.

The third phase of the Heroes of Iraq campaign started in Salahaddin at the start of the week. Four different areas in the center and east were included. Several IEDs were discovered which killed 2 Hashd and wounded 8 others.

There were no incidents in Kirkuk or Ninewa and no government activity. This was another sign that IS was slowing down during June after a relatively large campaign in April and May that saw violence go up to 2018 levels. That along with the downturn in events in June show that the insurgency is still very limited militarily and can’t sustain large scale operations for long. The government has also been very aggressive since then as well.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Jun 1-7	Jun 8-14	Jun 15-21	Jun 22-28
Anbar	4	-	-	-
Babil	-	1	-	-
Baghdad	-	4 Pro-Iran	4/ 3 Pro-Iran	2/ 1 Pro-Iran
Diyala	5	4	4	6
Irbil	1	-	-	-
Kirkuk	5	2	1	1
Ninewa	-	3	2	-
Salahaddin	2	2	5	1
TOTAL	17	16/ 4 Pro-Iran	16/ 3 Pro-Iran	10/ 1 Pro-Iran

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Jun 1-7	Jun 8-14	Jun 15-21	Jun 22-28
Anbar	4 (4K)	-	-	-
Babil	-	2 (2W)	-	-
Baghdad	-	-	1 (1K)	-
Diyala	10 (5K, 5W)	14 (8K, 6W)	6 (2K, 4W)	11 (6K, 5W)
Irbil	4 (2K, 2W)	-	-	-
Kirkuk	14 (2K, 12W)	6 (1K, 5W)	-	-
Ninewa	-	1 (1W)	4 (4W)	-
Salahaddin	-	2 (1K, 1W)	19 (8K, 11W)	10 (2K, 8W)
TOTAL	32 (13K, 19W)	25 (10K, 15W)	30 (11K, 19W)	21 (8K, 13W)

Islamic State Activity in Iraq 2018-20

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
2019 Totals	185	112	33	63	2	6	29	2	-
Jan 2020	13	6	-	2	-	1	-	-	-
Feb	16	5	2	8	-	1	-	-	-
Mar	15	10	4	2	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	20	17	4	2	-	-	-	-	-
May	38	18	8	9	1	5	17	-	-
Jun	13	1	-	2	-	1	2	-	-

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
2019 Totals	77	116	24	19	6	8	18	-	1
Jan 2020	10	1	2	2	-	1	-	-	-
Feb	5	-	2	1	-	2	1	-	-
Mar	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	17	7	6	3	-	2	1	1	-
May	15	10	1	7	1	4	10	-	-
Jun	1	2	-	-	-	1	3	-	-

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
2019 Totals	63	49	14	3	9	6	17	-	3
Jan 2020	7	5	2	1	-	1	-	-	-
Feb	5	5	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
Mar	2	5	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	8	8	1	4	-	1	1	-	-
May	5	9	-	2	-	-	2	-	-
Jun	2	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
2019 Totals	60	54	32	5	2	6	8	2	6
Jan 2020	4	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-
Feb	5	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	-
Mar	5	2	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	4	3	3	-	-	1	-	-	-
May	21	6	9	5	-	2	2	-	-
Jun	5	3	1	2	-	-	1	-	-

           

Security In Iraq 2019-20

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
Jan 1-7	32	17/10	24
Jan 8-14	32	94/31	53
Jan 15-21	22	17/11	16/14
Jan 22-28	27	36/17	31
Jan 29-31	12	7	6
JAN 2019	114	139	130/128
Feb 1-7	29/1	76/16	30
Feb 8-14	24	26	18
Feb 15-21	40	112/37	12
Feb 22-28	25	36	70
FEB	118/1	250/115	130
Mar 1-7	13	22	45
Mar 8-14	19	75/10	37
Mar 15-21	12	66/37	21/11
Mar 22-28	13	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	9/8	26
Apr 22-28	19	45	15
Apr 29-30	2	1	4
APR	99	105	100
May 1-7	20	15	18
May 8-14	24	31	41
May 15-21	37/1	62/25	39
May 22-28	43	39	54
May 29-31	13	16	48
MAY	137/1	163/125	200
Jun 1-7	26	19	44
Jun 8-14	25/1	29	15
Jun 15-21	21/2	6	13/10
Jun 22-28	18	17	41
Jun 29-30	9	3	9
JUN	99/3	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
Aug 22-28	27	24	72
Aug 29-31	11	19	10
AUG	104	103	141
Sep 1-7	39	39	38
Sep 8-14	30	35	43
Sep 15-21	23	27	26
Sep 22-28	24/1	15	20
Sep 29-30	7	6	4
SEP	123/1	122	131
Oct 1-7	3	1	2
Oct 8-14	14	25	17
Oct 15-21	19	29	13
Oct 22-28	22/1	33	10
Oct 29-31	12/1	4	11
OCT	70/2	92	53
Nov 1-7	6/1	4	1
Nov 8-14	9/1	2	25
Nov 15-21	15/1	11	2
Nov 22-28	17/1	24	33
Nov 29-30	8/1	6	37
NOV	55/5	47	98
Dec 1-7	36/3	33	44
Dec 8-14	19/3	19	19
Dec 15-21	26	44	25
Dec 22-28	30/1	30	38
Dec 29-31	9	8	7
DEC	120/7	134	133
Jan 1-7	25/7	16	84
Jan 8-14	24/3	12	34
Jan 15-21	23/2	11	12
Jan 22-28	11/1	10	8
Jan 29-31	8/1	4	1
JAN 2020	91/12	53	139
Feb 1-7	22	13	11
Feb 8-14	18/1	5	38
Feb 15-21	16/2	42	18
Feb 22-28	25	15	34
Feb 29	4	5	2
FEB	85/3	80	103
Mar 1-7	17/3	11	17
Mar 8-14	15/2	13	33
Mar 15-21	14/2	5	19
Mar 22-28	14/1	13	11
Mar 29-31	9	5	10
MAR	69/8	47	90
Ap 1-7	27/1	27	37
Apr 8-14	24	25	51
Apr 15-21	33/1	19	34
Apr 22-28	22	8	40
Apr 29-30	5	2	4
APR	111/2	81	165
May 1-7	44/1	47	36
May 8-14	49	21	47
May 15-21	66/1	45	64
May 22-28	30	9	21
May 29-31	7	3	12
MAY	196/2	125	180
Jun 1-7	17	13	19
Jun 8-14	16/4	10	15
Jun 15-21	16/3	11	19
Jun 22-28	10/1	8	13

Violence By Province Jun 22-28, 2020

Province	Violence
Baghdad	2/1 Pro-Iran 1 Grenades 1 Rockets
Diyala	6 Incidents 6 Killed 6 ISF 5 Wounded 5 ISF 4 Shootings 2 Mortars
Kirkuk	1 Incident 1 Shooting
Salahaddin	1 Incident 2 Killed 2 Hashd 8 Wounded 8 Hashd 1 IED

SOURCES

Al Maalomah, "The popular crowd purges two villages of ISIS waste east of Salahaddin," 6/22/20

NINA, "3 ISIS Dens And A Water Crossing Destroyed By Two Pre-Emptive Operations In Diyala," 6/26/20

- "5 Mortar Shells Hit Villages Of Al-Waqf Basin, Northeast Of Baquba," 6/24/20

- "Al-Abbas Combat Division Carries Out A Proactive Operation In Najaf And Anbar Desert Areas," 6/25/20

- "ISIS foil attack on a village in Diyala," 6/27/20

- "A joint security operation was launched to track ISIS cells in the Waqf basin, in Diyala," 6/28/20

- "The PMF Carries Out A Security Operation To Hunt Down ISIS Remnants In Khanaqin, Diyala," 6/27/20

- "The PMF Carries Out An Operation To Clean Al-Wind River Basin, Northeast Of Baquba," 6/27/20

- "A policeman was killed and three others were wounded in an ISIS attack northeast of Baquba," 6/27/20

- "The Popular Crowd: Clearance of /14/ km from Hawi al-Adhaim, north of Diyala," 6/22/20

- "Unidentified Gunmen Assassinate A Policeman In Diyala," 6/27/20

Shafaaq News, "The outcome of Heroes of Iraq: 10 victims of the crowd and the destruction of ISIS targets," 6/24/20

Sherwani, Halgurd, "Rocket lands inside Baghdad International Airport," 6/23/20

Al Sumaria, "Gunmen storm a policeman's house and place two grenades inside it, north of Baghdad," 6/23/20

United News of India, "Four policemen killed in IS terrorist attack in Iraq," 6/28/20

Wali, Zhelwan, "Joint operation kills at least 12 ISIS militants in Makhmour," Rudaw, 6/24/20