Security In Iraq Aug 22-28, 2018

(Iraqi News)

Iraq remained relatively quiet during the fourth week of August 2018. Incidents remained within the mean of around 40 per week, while casualties remained extremely low for the second week in a row.

There were 42 incidents reported in the media in Iraq from August 22-28. There were 45 the third week of August, 47 the second, and 49 the first. There have been around 40 incidents per week since April. Baghdad and Diyala with 12 each were the only two areas in double digits.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Aug 22-28, 2018

Anbar 2

Basra 2

Kurdistan 2

Ninewa 2

Salahaddin 4

Kirkuk 6

Baghdad 12

Diyala 12

Casualties In Iraq By Province Aug 22-28, 2018

Ninewa 3 (1 Killed, 2 Wounded)

Kurdistan 6 (6 Killed)

Anbar 7 (1 Killed, 6 Wounded)

Kirkuk 8 (2 Killed, 6 Wounded)

Baghdad 13 (7 Killed, 6 Wounded)

Diyala 14 (4 Killed, 10 Wounded)

Salahaddin 42 (8 Killed, 34 Wounded)

For the second, week Iraq witnessed some of the fewest casualty counts since 2003. There were just 29 deaths reported and 64 wounded. The dead consisted of 3 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), 6 members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), 8 Hashd al-Shaabi, and 12 civilians. An additional 14 ISF, 16 civilians, and 34 Hashd were injured. Most of the dead and wounded occurred in Salahaddin with a total of 42 casualties.

As Iraq’s ruling parties continued to negotiate over forming a new government, two decrees were issued that were attempts to play politics with the security forces. First, deputy Hashd al-Shaabi commander Abu Muhandis made an order withdrawing all Hashd from liberated areas of Iraq. A few days later, Prime Minister Haidar Abadi reversed that command saying that he was the ultimate commander and chief and that the Hashd should be non-political. Many Sunni politicians have been demanding Shiite Hashd units be withdrawn from their areas. This was an obvious attempt by Muhandis who backs the coalition of Badr head Hadi Amiri and Vice President Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law to win over Sunnis.

Anbar, Baghdad and Ninewa remained relatively quiet. Anbar only had 2 incidents, both IEDs. Baghdad had 12 incidents, but they were the usual mix of shootings and IEDs. Ninewa had two confrontations with the Islamic State in Mosul. All three used to be main targets of the Islamic State, but have since become peripheral to its plans.

That’s because the insurgency is now based in the center of the country. The Islamic State is active in all rural areas of Diyala. There was one gun battle, an attack upon a village and an army camp, and slaughtering 21 cows after a village refused to cooperate in the province. Kirkuk had a series of IEDs, but also a Kurdish TV station’s office was hit by mortar fire in Kirkuk city. There was also a report that people were fleeing villages in the Daquq district in the east after the militants burned several homes and kidnapped people. Finally, in Salahaddin a suicide bomber hit the Shirqat district in the north. The media was contradictory about whether the target was a checkpoint or a politicians’ house. The bombing left 6 dead and 30 wounded. IS’s goal in all three provinces is to rebuild its networks, control villages, tax the inhabitants, and confront the security forces. It has been widely successful. In many areas the insurgents are said to be in control at night, and sometimes even walk around out in the open during the day. The Iraqi forces continue to carry out sweeps in these areas but are ineffective. Intelligence from locals appears to be poor, likely due to the rebirth of the Islamic State, and the operations are short in duration allowing the insurgents to move out when the government forces move in and return afterward.

Finally, there were two Turkish attacks in northern Kurdistan as part of its ongoing campaign against the PKK. A total of 6 PKK fighters were killed in the incidents.

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	13	16	2	2	-	-	2	6	-	-

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	19	2	-	2	-	-	2	-	-

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	7	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

Violence By Province Aug 22-28, 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	2 Incidents 1 Killed 1 ISF 6 Wounded 6 ISF 2 IEDs
Baghdad	12 Incidents 7 Killed 7 Civilians 6 Wounded 6 Civilians 7 Shootings 2 IEDs 1 Sound Bomb
Basra	2 Incidents 1 IED 1 Grenade
Diyala	12 Incidents 4 Killed 2 Civilians 2 ISF 10 Wounded 2 ISF 8 Civilians 3 Shootings 5 IEDs
Kirkuk	6 Incidents 2 Killed 2 Civilians 6 Wounded 6 ISF 3 IEDs 4 Sound bombs 1 Mortar
Kurdistan	2 Incidents 6 Killed 6 PKK 1 Turkish Air Strike
Ninewa	2 Incidents 1 Killed 1 Hashd 2 Wounded 2 Hashd 2 Shootings
Salahaddin	4 Incidents 8 Killed 1 Civilian 7 Hashd 34 Wounded 2 Civilians 32 Hashd 1 IED 1 Suicide Bomber 1 Mortar

SOURCES

Al Alam, "An Iraqi military commander was killed in a bombing in the western part of the country," 8/23/18

Anadolu Agency, "9 PKK militants 'neutralized' in Turkey, N Iraq," 8/26/18

- “Hashd al-Shaabi leaves town in Iraq’s Saladin province,” 8/23/18

- "Turkish army: neutralized 3 terrorists in northern Iraq," 8/24/18

Baghdad Today, "Mortar shell targets satellite-channels HQ in Kirkuk," 8/25/18

Bas News, "Diyala: IS Militants Attack Village in Iraqi Army Uniform," 8/26/18

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Seven Islamic State members killed in firefight with police forces in Mosul," Iraqi News, 8/25/18

Al Ghad Press, "Three soldiers wounded by roadside bomb targeting their patrol in Anbar," 8/24/18

NINA, "Daesh killed 21 cows in retaliation for the villagers of the agricultural village near Al-Edhaim for refusing to cooperate with the organization," 8/24/18

- "Daesh Target Military HQs Northeast Of Baquba By Firing Mortar Shells," 8/26/18

NRT, “Fearing For Their Lives, More Kakayis Evacuate Villages In Southern Daquq,” 8/25/18

Reuters, "Suicide attack kills six Sunni fighters in northern Iraq: police," 8/22/18

Rudaw, “Abadi warns Hashd commander against withdrawals, military restructuring,” 8/24/18

- "ISIS kills Hashd commander in Mosul clashes," 8/22/18

Xinhua, "6 killed in IS suicide attack in Iraq's Salahudin province," 8/22/18

- "Police officer killed, 5 security members injured in anti-terror operations in Iraq," 8/24/18