Islamic State Makes Brief Return To Iraq In March While Pro-Iran Groups Continue Ceasefire With US

After almost disappearing from Iraq in February the Islamic State let everyone know it was still present in the country. Pro-Iran groups maintained a ceasefire with the U.S. while claiming a number of attacks upon Israel.

 

In February there was only 1 security incident by the Islamic State in Iraq. That was obviously an all-time low since 2003.

 

In March there were 11 incidents by IS. That was comparable to 13 in January. Before that there hadn’t been a month with double digit incidents since August 2023.

 

Almost all the insurgent activity occurred during the second week of March when there were 7 attacks spread across Anbar, Diyala and Kirkuk. The first week of the month there were two incidents in Baghdad’s northern district of Tarmiya which is a longtime insurgent base. Then during the third week there was an attack upon a checkpoint in Kirkuk and a shootout in Salahaddin. There was no activity for the rest of the month.

 

That resulted in 5 dead made up of 1 soldier, 2 Hashd al-Shaabi and 2 civilians and 14 wounded consisting of 1 civilian, 4 Hashd and 9 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).

 

At the end of January Iran and the Sudani government negotiated a ceasefire with pro-Iran Hashd to stop attacks upon US targets in Iraq. That has held since. The Iraqi Islamic Resistance however is still claiming drone strikes upon Israel with 6 during March. There is no confirmation that any of these actually happened nor where the drones originated from. They could’ve come from Iraq but also Syria.

 

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Mar 1-7	Mar 8-14	Mar 15-21	Mar 22-28	Mar 29-31	Totals
Anbar	-	4	-	-	-	4
Baghdad	2	-	-	-	-	2
Diyala	-	1	-	-	-	1
Israel	2 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	-	2 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	6 Pro-Iran
Kirkuk	-	2	1	-	-	3
Salahaddin	-	-	1	-	-	1
TOTAL	4/2 Pro-Iran	8/1 Pro-Iran	2	1 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	17/6 Pro-Iran

 

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Feb 1-7	Feb 8-14	Mar 15-21	Mar 22-28	Mar 29-31	Totals
Anbar	-	9 (2K, 7W)	-	-	-	9 (2K, 7W)
Baghdad	5 (1K, 4W)	-	-	-	-	5 (1K, 4W)
Diyala	-	1 (1K)	-	-	-	1 (1K)
Kirkuk	-	2 (1K, 1W)	2 (2W)	-	-	4 (1K, 3W)
TOTAL	5 (1K, 4W)	12 (4K, 8W)	2 (2W)	-	-	19 (5K, 14W)

 

Security In Iraq 2022-23

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
JAN 2022	87/41 Pro-Iran	33	59
FEB	42/14 Pro-Iran	10	29
MAR	46/12/1 Pro-Iran	19	21
APR	111/22 Pro-Iran	34	103
MAY	73/13 Pro-Iran	41	51
JUN	40/14 Pro-Iran	7	33
JUL	43/6 Pro-Iran	33	54
AUG	57/7/1 Pro-Iran	24	54
SEP	41/1/3 M	9	64
OCT	28/2/3 M	17	45
NOV	23	10	28
DEC	33/1 Pro-Iran	42	38
JAN 2023	29/4 Pro-Iran	12	15
Feb 1-7	6/2 Pro-Iran	1	5
Feb 8-14	1	-	2
Feb 15-21	4	4	8
Feb 22-28	9/1 Pro-Iran	7	3
FEB	20/3 Pro-Iran	12	18
Mar 1-7	3	10	4
Mar 8-14	2	2	1
Mar 15-21	2	1	3
Mar 22-28	1	2	-
Mar 29-31	1	3	-
MAR	9	18	8
Apr 1-7	5	1	7
Apr 8-14	4	-	1
Apr 15-21	5	3	-
Apr 22-28	2	1	-
Apr 29-30	1	1	-
APR	16	6	8
May 1-7	2	1	1
May 8-14	6	4	3
May 15-21	3	2	6
May 22-28	3	1	3
May 29-31	2	-	3
MAY	15	8	14
Jun 1-7	-	-	-
Jun 8-14	4	7	4
Jun 15-21	2	1	2
Jun 22-28	4	2	4
Jun 29-30	-	-	-
JUN	10	10	10
Jul 1-7	1	-	-
Jul 8-14	3	2	1
Jul 15-21	2	-	1
Jul 22-28	2	-	2
Jul 29-31	3/2 Pro-Iran	-	-
JUL	11/2 Pro-Iran	2	4
Aug 1-7	4	-	4
Aug 8-14	2	1	3
Aug 15-21	2	-	5
Aug 22-28	2	-	2
Aug 29-31	3/1 Pro-Iran	1	9
AUG	13/1 Pro-Iran	2	23
Sep 1-7	1	-	1
Sep 8-14	1	1	-
Sep 15-21	2	-	4
Sep 22-28	1	1	1
Sep 29-30	-	-	-
SEP	5	2	6
Oct 1-7	-	-	-
Oct 8-14	-	-	-
Oct 15-21	7 Pro-Iran	-	-
Oct 22-28	7/5 Pro-Iran	-	8
Oct 29-31	3 Pro-Iran	-	-
OCT	17/15 Pro-Iran	-	8
Nov 1-7	11/9	4	2
Nov 8-14	12/10	-	3
Nov 15-21	6 Pro-Iran	-	8 Amer
Nov 22-28	4 Pro-Iran	-	-
Nov 29-30	2	11	16
NOV	35/29 Pro-Iran	15	29
Dec 1-7	10/8 Pro-Iran	1	9
Dec 8-14	8/6 Pro-Iran	-	2
Dec 15-21	6/2 Pro-Iran	1	2
Dec 22-28	7/6 Pro-Iran	-	3 US
Dec 29-31	4 Pro-Iran
DEC	35/26 Pro-Iran	2K	16W
Jan 1-7	10/6 Pro-Iran/1 Iranian	5	9
Jan 8-14	7/3 Pro-Iran	3	3
Jan 15-21	10/6 Pro-Iran	6	6
Jan 22-28	11/10 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jan 29-31	3 Pro-Ira	-	-
JAN	42/28 Pro-Iran/1 Iranian	14	20
Feb 1-7	1 Pro-Iran	-	-
Feb 8-14	-	-	-
Feb 15-21	-	-	-
Feb 22-29	1	-	-
FEB	2/1 Pro-Iran	-	-
Mar 1-7	4/2 Pro-Iran	1	4
Mar 8-14	8/1 Pro-Iran	4	8
Mar 15-21	2	-	2
Mar 22-28	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Mar 29-31	1 Pro-Iran	-	-
MAR	17/6 Pro-Iran	5	14